OXNARD : Development Tied to School Feared

Two Oxnard City Council members said Monday that they fear that relocation of Oxnard High School to protected farmland near Gonzales and Patterson roads will open the greenbelt to large-scale commercial and residential development.

The Oxnard High School District wants to move the school from the flight path of Oxnard Airport to a 50-acre agricultural preserve just northwest of the city limits.

Opponents of the relocation effort have argued that encroachment into the greenbelt would encourage future growth in an area shielded from development until at least the year 2000.

“I think developers are going to try to get their foot in the door,” said Norman Brekke, superintendent of the Oxnard Elementary School District. “Once that happens, I think the whole door is going to swing wide open and allow commercial and residential development all the way to the sea.”

The City Council is scheduled to consider today a proposal to extend water pipes, sewer lines and other public services to the new high school as long as the school district pays for the work.

But council members Dorothy Maron and Michael Plisky said they are not sure that they can support the proposal.

“I think if the high school goes there, regardless of what you hear, the rest of that land will go to development too,” Maron said.

Plisky, who has long contended that more development would follow the high school into the agricultural preserve, fears that the council will face a steady stream of development pitches if the school is built in the northwest.

Mayor Nao Takasugi said he believes that the city should aid the relocation effort.