Ventura Urged to Buy Bankrupt RV Park for Use as Nature Sanctuary : Environment: Situated on flood plain near the ocean, it was devastated in ’92 flood. But cost is questioned.

The city of Ventura should consider spending millions of dollars to purchase a bankrupt trailer park, the site of disastrous floods in 1992, and convert it into a nature sanctuary alongside the Ventura River bed, some City Council members said.

The company that owns the Ventura Beach RV Resort, Hubbard Family Corp., filed for bankruptcy last January, and Sumitomo Bank of California is in the process of taking over the property, said Ventura City Atty. Peter Bulens.

Nancy Hubbard, who manages the corporation, declined to comment Saturday on the bankruptcy proceedings.

The recreational vehicle park made national headlines in the 1992 floods, which destroyed or damaged 40 of the 57 motor homes parked at the site on West Main Street and washed one vehicle under the Ventura Freeway and out to sea.

The disaster reignited a debate between the park’s owners and environmentalists over why the park was built on an 18-acre section of river bottom and flood plain, nearly skimming the western bank of the Ventura River and only a short walk from the ocean shore.

With the resort facing possible sale, City Council members Gary Tuttle and Rosa Lee Measures said this may be the city’s best chance to obtain it for environmental purposes.

“I don’t want to be callous and take advantage of somebody’s misfortune,” Tuttle said. “But this could be a neat opportunity.”

Council members, however, are unsure how the city would pay for the land. Between retiring the debt Hubbard owes and the actual price of the property, the price tag could run above $5 million, they said.

Tuttle said perhaps the Coastal Conservancy, a state agency charged with restoring and enhancing natural resources, could contribute funds to help the city purchase the land and add it to the larger Ventura River Estuary rehabilitation effort.

The city, the conservancy and the state parks department will spend about $750,000 over the next few years to restore the river’s primary mouth to its original condition.

Measures said she would like to relocate the RV park, though she is not sure where it could go. “It would make a lot of sense to have that land as an estuary,” she said of the resort’s current property.

But Councilman Gregory L. Carson said the city, which may also commit large sums to two proposed projects, a marine center and a county minor league baseball franchise, may not have the money left to buy the resort. “I guess we kind of have our resources tied up in other places,” he said.

Councilmen Jim Monahan and Jack Tingstrom said they would like to see another private operator purchase the park from the bank.

“Look at the tax revenue we’re getting from it,” Tingstrom said. “The business was approved by the city, and it should stay in the city.”

Councilman Steve Bennett and Mayor Tom Buford could not be reached for comment.