PORT HUENEME : City to Help Builder Buy Tainted Property

The Port Hueneme City Council has agreed to help a developer build condominiums at the site of a gas station that closed two years ago when underground fuel leaks were discovered.

Efforts to remove contamination from soil under the station on the northwest corner of Hueneme Road and J Street were thwarted when one of the property’s owners declared bankruptcy.

The property has since deteriorated and is an eyesore, said Tom Figg, the city’s director of economic development, who added that the parcel would probably remain blighted without city assistance.

“If we didn’t involve ourselves, nothing would be done there,” Figg said.

On Wednesday, the council agreed to spend $94,248 to help Channel Islands Development Co. buy the 12,907-square-foot parcel and build four units of housing as an extension to the 37-unit Courtyard Villas next door.

Under terms of its agreement with the city, the development firm would pay $313,400 for the property and remove soil contamination at an estimated cost of $400,000.

The agreement calls for the city to be reimbursed for all but $15,670 in administrative costs if Channel Islands Development is able to recover the cost of the cleanup from either the station’s owners or the state.

Figg said he believed the city had an even chance of recovering its subsidy, but said hopes mostly rest on the developer acquiring cleanup funds from the state.

Most of the risk in the deal will be carried by Channel Islands Development, which built the adjacent Courtyard Villas.

Figg said the company may have been willing to shoulder the risk because the contamination had seeped beneath the condominium complex, and unless it is removed now, the firm may be financially liable for a later cleanup.