Plan to Expand Downtown Area Is Attacked : Ventura: Panel is expected to approve inclusion of upper Ventura Avenue. Critics say it would hurt city’s housing goals.

Some Ventura city leaders want to greatly expand the city’s downtown boundaries to include the upper Ventura Avenue area, a move that critics say would damage the city’s long-term housing goals for the downtown and favor developers who propose to build 330 townhouses in the neighborhood.

A committee of the Ventura City Council is expected today to approve the plan, which would stretch the city’s downtown boundaries more than 20 blocks north, from West Park Row Avenue to Arapaho Street. The three-member committee includes council members Jim Monahan, Jack Tingstrom and Rosa Lee Measures.

If approved by the full council later this spring, the move would allow developers in the upper Avenue area to apply for 330 housing units immediately, rather than wait until April like other developers. The Neel and Huntsinger families of Ventura, with the national copy service Kinko’s, are proposing to turn vacant lots and a lemon grove into a neighborhood of townhouses, business offices and industrial buildings.

The committee’s recommendation to help fast-track the upper Avenue project has already drawn sharp criticism from other council members.

“It’s a shell game,” Councilman Gary Tuttle said. “It’s a manipulation of housing allocations.”

But pro-growth council members point out that because no developers have stepped forward to apply for the downtown allocations, the boundaries of what is considered the city’s downtown should be expanded to allow other developments.

“Since the allocations have been on the table, no one has applied for it,” said Monahan, who supports the change. “I think that council members will see that it’s the only way that something will get built on that side of town.”

In May, the council decided to set aside 500 units on a first-come, first-served basis for downtown to encourage developers to build in the city’s old commercial center. The council decided to use the same boundaries set forth in the city’s Downtown Specific Plan, a regulatory and policy document that details the city’s plans to revitalize the neighborhood.

Tuttle, one of the council’s strongest advocates for downtown residential development, said he is upset that the committee wants to raid the downtown allocations for another development. A developer must apply for and receive housing allocations from the City Council before getting permits to build.

Every year, the council distributes a handful of housing units to developers, who usually apply for more than are available. The council has a maximum of 1,628 housing units to give through the year 1999.

If they qualify for the downtown housing allocations, Kinko’s and the Neel and Huntsinger families would not have to compete with other developers for the 1,628 units available.

“I’m outraged by it,” Tuttle said. “It’s blatant favoritism.”

Lindsay Nielson, who represents the Huntsinger family, said he does not think that the committee’s recommendation would be considered an act of favoritism.

“We’re not competing with anyone for the downtown allocations,” Nielson said. “There’s nothing happening in the downtown, and frankly, the Avenue is an extension of downtown.”

Councilman Gregory L. Carson said he sides with Tuttle in maintaining the current downtown boundaries.

“In order to have a successful downtown, you have to have housing within walking distance and the northern Avenue is not walking distance,” Carson said.

Mayor Tom Buford said he was not enthusiastic about the committee’s idea, but would wait to hear its arguments.

Monahan, a lifelong Ventura resident who owns a welding shop on Ventura Avenue, said the Avenue neighborhood should never have been cut off from the original downtown boundaries.

“The Avenue and the downtown are one and the same,” he said.

Stretching Downtown Boundaries A committee of the Ventura City Council wants to expand the boundaries of the city’s downtown area to include the upper Ventura Avenue neighborhood. The move would allow a developer who is interested in building in the Avenue area to qualify for housing allocations set aside for the city’s downtown. Some council members are objecting to the suggestion,saying the Avenue neighborhood is not part of the city’s downtown, and that the developer should not receive favored treatment.