Ventura Takes First Step to Change Zoning in Industrial Sector : Planning: City studies status change that would enable two land-owning families and a copy service firm to provide residential and commercial uses on 77 acres.

The Ventura City Council is considering a proposal that could change the course of the city’s traditional industrial area by building houses, offices and a public park in the northern Ventura Avenue neighborhood.

At its meeting Monday night, the council took the first step toward changing the zoning from heavy industrial to commercial and residential uses for a proposed project affecting about 77 acres in the area.

If approved, the proposal would conflict with the city’s longtime Comprehensive Plan, a legally binding planning document that has traditionally designated northern Ventura Avenue as a place for heavy industry. The council would have to amend the Comprehensive Plan before approving the proposed housing and office complex.

The Neel and Huntsinger families and Kinko’s--a copy service company headquartered in the area--want to develop their land and demolish a lemon grove to make room for 330 residential units, a park, bike trails and business offices.

The neighborhood is now a mixture of vacant lots, industrial businesses, storage lots for old cars and buses, and the Neel family’s 20-acre lemon grove. It is north of Stanley Avenue and south of Seneca Street, and bounded on the east by Ventura Avenue and the west by California 33.

Following public testimony late Monday, the council voted 6 to 1 to initiate the zone change.

The council’s action does not indicate approval of the project, only that council members plan to later consider changing the zoning in the neighborhood.

Councilman Jim Monahan, the only council member who owns a business in the neighborhood, cast the lone dissenting vote.

Monahan, owner of a welding company and a longtime advocate of the Ventura Avenue area, argued that Ventura must preserve its industrial roots. Earlier this century, Ventura was a booming oil town, and the Ventura Avenue area has been home to many oil-service businesses.

“This has historically been Ventura’s industrial site,” Monahan said.

However, property owners and other council members say the city has since departed from its roots in the oil industry and is evolving into a service-based economy.

“We have to respect the fact that we’re no longer an oil industry (town),” Councilwoman Rosa Lee Measures said.

In fact, Kinko’s--a service-based industry--has a gleaming white office building in the middle of the traditionally gritty neighborhood. Under the proposal, the company would build a 60,000-square-foot addition, and city leaders say they are eager to accommodate the expansion plans of one of Ventura’s largest employers.

But the proposed project has drawn the opposition of some neighboring property owners because the Neels, Huntsingers and Kinko’s are asking the council to change the zoning on about 25 acres of their neighbors’ properties.

The change would make the industrial neighborhood more upscale and would fit in better with their development, said Steve Perlman, a land-use consultant hired by the families and Kinko’s.

“This reinvestment in the Avenue community is intended to somewhat change the character of the community,” Perlman told the council.

On Monday, neighboring property owners objected to the plans, arguing that they want their land to stay industrially zoned because such property is scarce in the city and has lower vacancy rates.

“If Kinko’s and the Neels and the Huntsingers plan to build, God bless them, but don’t take away our zoning,” said Beverly Olmos, who owns a little more than an acre of property in the area.

But council members, who have expressed an interest in revitalizing the area, were swayed by arguments of private investment in one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods.

“The Avenue has been neglected for the last 20 to 25 years,” Carl Huntsinger said. “The purpose of this project is to change that direction.”

City planners said they will begin an environmental review of the proposed project, and the council will consider approving the zoning changes and the proposed development later this year.