PORT HUENEME : City to Seek Funds for Seaside Walkway

The Port Hueneme City Council on Wednesday directed its staff to apply for funds that will help build an oceanfront promenade for pedestrians and bicyclists at the northwest end of Port Hueneme Beach.

The vote was 3 to 0, with Councilmen Dorill B. Wright and Ken Hess absent.

City officials estimate that it will cost $225,000 to build the half-mile walkway. By applying for a grant under the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund, the city can recover 50% of the cost, said Tom Figg, director of community development.

The promenade could be built by the end of next year if funding is approved, Figg said. The remainder of the cost would come from city development fees, he said.

Long-range blueprints for the city have long included plans to build a seaside walkway from the westerly end of Surfside Drive to the mouth of Port Hueneme Harbor. The current proposal envisions only a promenade half that length on frontage owned by the Navy, Figg said.

Walkers, joggers and bicyclists would enter the promenade along a temporary asphalt pathway connecting it with Hueneme Road, Figg said. The other half of the promenade would be built in later years, perhaps with money from private developers, Figg said.

The promenade would include a viewing area at its midpoint and picnic tables, a gazebo and low-maintenance landscaping at its westernmost end, Figg said.

Figg discounted environmentalists’ concerns that the promenade would encroach upon beach nesting areas used by the endangered California least tern. The walkway would be built east of a seawall on dry land, not on the sandy area, he said.

“I’d be hard-pressed to find any endangered species there, because that part of the beach erodes away every two years,” he said.