Ventura City Council Considers New Limits on Stays at RV Park

Ten months after the Ventura River overflowed and flooded the Ventura Beach RV Resort, the Ventura City Council met Monday to discuss how long campers may stay at the facility.

About 30 environmentalists, business owners and residents attended the council’s meeting Monday evening to speak for and against stronger restrictions on the RV park, located at the mouth of the Ventura River.

The issue was brought to the council after city officials and park owner Nancy Hubbard disagreed on the interpretation of a permit issued by the city in 1985.

City officials say the permit does not allow anyone to stay at the park past 30 days, and a camper cannot return for at least two weeks after a visit.

But Hubbard contends that residents are allowed to stay for 29 days, check out and return in a day or two. It is only if a visitor stays for 30 days that he or she must leave and wait two weeks before returning to the park at 800 W. Main St., Hubbard said.

“I don’t think there’s bad faith,” said Everett Millais, director of community development, who conceded in an interview that the permit needs clarification. “There is a definite difference of opinion on the length of stay.”

On average, the 144-space park hosts about 80 vehicles a day, Hubbard said. About 10% of the park’s residents essentially live there, checking out every 29 days and returning shortly thereafter, she said.

Kate Weiswender, an attorney for Friends of the Ventura River, told the council that the park “was built as a recreational facility, not a residential facility.” She urged that the permit restrict campers to short stays.

City staff did not enforce the permit’s length-of-stay conditions until after storms last winter flooded the 19-acre RV park. One homeless man living in the nearby river bottom drowned, and about 40 recreational vehicles were damaged or destroyed.

The city is concerned that campers who stay at the RV park for long periods will not keep their vehicles in good condition and will not be able to leave quickly in case of a flood, Millais said.

“It’s in a flood plain. It will flood again,” he said.

RV park officials argue in response that the county did not give the park sufficient notice to evacuate in February and that all the vehicles in the park at the time were in good condition.

Hubbard said she blamed the “sensationalistic television coverage” for the city’s new push to enforce the permit.

“No one is more concerned about the safety of our guests than I am,” Hubbard told the council Monday. “But over-regulation by local government is not acceptable.”

Some council members also expressed concern about liability, but Hubbard said her $2-million insurance policy is sufficient.

The council cannot change the permit without Hubbard’s permission, said City Atty. Peter D. Bulens, but it can revoke it if violations are documented.

Before that can happen, the council must clarify the wording on the permit. Hubbard must then abide by the council’s interpretation of the permit or risk having it revoked, Millais said.

After the February floods, Hubbard said she spent about $8,000 to install an additional rain gauge, upgrade the Ventura County Flood Control District’s computer system and help pay for new topographic maps of the area produced by county officials.

Some environmental activists want the park shut down, arguing that it should never have been built on a flood plain.

But Elmer (Tex) Gaddis, a longtime resident of the Ventura Beach RV Resort, said recently: “If you’ve ever been in New Orleans or Galveston, you’d know what a flood plain is. This isn’t a flood plain.”

County officials have classified last winter’s Ventura River floods as a 22-year event, which means that it has about a 5% chance of occurring in any given year.