Port Hueneme RV Resort Plan to Be Subject of Public Hearing

An environmental study of a revised plan by Port Hueneme to build a recreational vehicle resort on the city’s beach will be the subject of a public hearing tonight at Port Hueneme City Hall.

Last fall, the city withdrew a proposal from review by the state Coastal Commission when the commission’s staff recommended a denial unless the city worked out a plan to safeguard habitat.

According to the draft environmental report, the project would significantly affect the views of the beach from the Surfside II and III condominium complexes.

But measures to protect an adjacent waterway and sand dunes, together with a program to monitor the extensive Ormond Beach wetlands, are enough to prevent significant harm to the environment, the report concludes.

The monitoring program calls for a joint study of the wetlands by Port Hueneme, the city of Oxnard and Southern California Edison.

In the revised plan, the RV resort would have a buffer zone of 150 to 200 feet next to the J Street drainage canal and a smaller buffer area separating the park from the dunes on the beach.

Port Hueneme has spent more than $600,000 so far in environmental studies, designs, a fiscal analysis, litigation and a title search, but hopes to receive annual revenues of $400,000 from the RV resort when it is built.

The Sierra Club and homeowners from Surfside III have filed suit against the city over its plans for the project.

Comments on the draft report can be made at tonight’s hearing, which starts at 7:30, or be submitted in writing by the end of December.