VENTURA : City to Hold Hearing on Mall Expansion
Ventura city planners will hold a meeting Tuesday to take comments and suggestions from residents about a proposal to expand the Buenaventura Mall to nearly twice its size, making it the largest retail shopping center in Ventura County.
The public meeting will be the first of many, said Mark Stephens, senior planner for the city.
“We’ll take all the commentary from the public and public agencies and factor that into the environmental impact report,” Stephens said. “Certainly we’re not going to make everybody happy, but certainly it will be an opportunity for them to express their concerns.”
Increased traffic and smog generated by the project will probably be the biggest environmental concerns, Stephens said.
Plans call for three more department stores to be added to the mall, which is bordered by Main Street, Mills Road and Telegraph Road. It is anchored now by a J.C. Penney store on the north and a Broadway to the south.
A second level would also be added to the 29-year-old mall, and two multilevel parking structures would be built.
The project is scheduled to begin in the spring of 1994, and completed in the fall of 1995, said Lori Gatto, vice president of Santa Monica-based MaceRich Co., which owns the mall.
The meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Ventura City Hall’s Community Meeting Room.
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