Plan Adopted to Revitalize Downtown : Ventura: The council-approved document details how the city would revamp the deteriorated area.

After more than a dozen public meetings and at least $225,000 in consultant fees, the Ventura City Council has adopted a long-term planning document that calls for sweeping changes to revitalize the city’s deteriorating downtown.

The Downtown Specific Plan, a policy and regulatory document, details the city’s strategy to revamp the area that has long since faded from its glory days of the 1940s as the city’s commercial center.

The council late Monday voted 5 to 1 to approve the plan. Mayor Gregory L. Carson was absent; Councilman James Monahan dissented.

“I think the plan is a good beginning, but that plan is far from being perfect,” Monahan said after the meeting. “I think there are still too many questions unanswered.”

Monahan said he needs more time to study the plan and is concerned about complaints from business owners.

Some downtown merchants oppose the plan because they believe that they would be forced out by city plans to place housing in areas now designated for commercial use.

Paul Nielsen, owner of Waveline Surf Shop on Thompson Boulevard, said the area near the train station at the Ventura County Fairgrounds should be spruced up to attract more tourists.

The station is near Figueroa Street, which should be filled with restaurants, shops and other tourist attractions, he said. Under the plan, it is zoned primarily for commercial offices.

“I think someone missed a very big boat on this one,” Nielsen said. “Figueroa Street is an ideal corridor for tourists.”

Nielsen also criticized the plan for adding more housing to downtown instead of drawing large businesses and industries to the area. He said residents would not want to move to the downtown area unless there are jobs in the area.

The plan calls for adding hundreds of condominiums and apartments to downtown, and increasing retail businesses by sprucing up the area. The changes are aimed at highlighting the beach, which city leaders believe is a prime attraction for tourism.

Under the plan, officials hope to reconfigure the California Street bridge to ease access between downtown shops and the beach. It also calls for improving and promoting historical landmarks such as the soon-to-be renovated Ventura Pier.

The city would also use public art and landscaping to beautify streets and generally spruce up storefronts on major streets. The plan would also impose design standards on new buildings.

Downtown Ventura was once the thriving center of commercial, political and cultural activity in the county. Now, it is a run-down neighborhood, home to thrift stores and furniture outlets. It has one of the worst homelessness problems in the city, which is not addressed in the plan.

“Downtown was destroyed when the mall came in and the government center moved out,” Councilman Tom Buford said. “We’ve been trying to recover since.”

Before the vote, much of Monday night’s debate centered around plans for Ash Street, which was designated a residential area under the plan. At the urging of business owners, the council decided to allow both residential and commercial use.

Nick Dietch, a local architect who heads the citizens group that helped draft the plan, warned the council against making too many changes in the plan before adoption.

“My biggest fear is that we’re going to erode it to the extent that it no longer works,” Dietch said. “You will not satisfy everybody.”

In the end, the council only made minor changes to the plan.