Plans Unveiled for Aquarium in Oxnard : Tourism: The three-acre facility at Channel Islands Harbor could cost up to $60 million and draw 1.5 million visitors annually.

Plans for a major aquarium at Channel Islands Harbor were unveiled Wednesday by a group of public officials and private citizens who said they expect it to become the largest tourist attraction in Ventura County.

But backers of the proposal, including Supervisor John K. Flynn and developer Martin V. (Bud) Smith, acknowledged that financing for the project--which could cost up to $60 million--has not been worked out.

The aquarium would be built on county-owned land at the harbor, and the county-operated harbor district will fund the initial studies, Flynn said. In addition, he said, the county could help pay for the project by issuing revenue bonds, which would be repaid with income from the aquarium.

Smith--who owns more non-agricultural property than any other landowner in the county and is one of its wealthiest residents--said he would also make a significant contribution to the facility.

Ventura officials, who hope to build a marine center at Ventura Harbor, said they were shocked by the announcement.

“It’s amazing they can keep it so quiet,” said Ventura Councilman Gregory L. Carson, one of the council’s most enthusiastic tourism boosters.

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Carson insisted, however, that the Ventura facility would surpass whatever was planned for the harbor at Oxnard.

“I feel Ventura would be a better location,” he said. “It’s a beach community, and our old-town historic area is right on the waterfront.”

As for the prominent names attached to the Channel Islands project--supporters include Rep. Elton Gallegly and state Sen. Cathie Wright (both R-Simi Valley) and the mayors of Oxnard and Port Hueneme--Carson noted that Ventura’s center has its own star sponsor.

“We have Cousteau working on the project,” he said, referring to Jean-Michel Cousteau, son of oceanographer Jacques Cousteau. The younger Cousteau has said he may want to get involved in the Ventura center.

“We’ve got some pretty good names ourselves working on our project,” Carson said. “But I guess, in the end, it’ll all boil down to dollars.”

The Oxnard aquarium on South Victoria Avenue would be modeled after the popular Monterey Bay Aquarium and could attract up to 1.5 million visitors annually, according to a preliminary study paid for by Smith.

The three-acre Channel Islands Harbor Aquarium, as the facility would be called, could also create up to 1,000 jobs for Oxnard and Port Hueneme, according to the study by the Lyon Group, a Los Angeles-based consulting firm that assisted with the Monterey aquarium and the recently completed Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport, Ore.

“It’s going to be a facility that is family-oriented,” Flynn said during a news conference by the harbor. “We want to give families the experience of knowing what is in the ocean and the opportunity to look at what is in the ocean.”

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The Channel Islands Harbor Aquarium would include a main tank housing a variety of sea life from the Southern California coast, several smaller tanks, classrooms for educational use, an auditorium and gift shops. Excursion boats to the Channel Islands and whale-watching trips would also depart from the facility, Flynn said.

A parking site has not been determined, but aquarium backers hope to build a lot on a Navy-owned parcel across Victoria Avenue. Navy officials are reviewing the requests, which also include building a pedestrian overpass to the aquarium site.

Plans for an aquarium at Channel Islands Harbor, which have been discussed for years, began moving rapidly three months ago when Smith contacted Flynn and expressed interest in supporting such a project.

The two flew up to Monterey in Smith’s plane a few weeks later, and were impressed by the Monterey Bay Aquarium and its economic impact.

Flynn said the project would be the most significant aquarium in the region. But several California cities have already begun or are planning such facilities--some larger than the Channel Islands Harbor project.

In addition to Oxnard and Ventura, the cities of Long Beach, San Pedro, Sacramento and Stockton are planning aquarium projects.

Long Beach plans to have a $110-million facility built by 1997 using revenue bonds, Long Beach City Manager James Hankla said.

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Hankla said funding aquariums with revenue bonds is a difficult enterprise because many aquariums do not pay for themselves.

“If you aren’t absolutely certain that you can guarantee the turnstile revenue, it will be a failure,” Hankla said of the Channel Islands project. “You have to prove to the satisfaction of the bond buyers that you are going to have many visitors a year.”

Flynn said he plans to discuss the revenue bonds option with the other supervisors during budget study sessions this summer.

Both Ventura officials and those supporting the Channel Islands Harbor project point to the Monterey Bay Aquarium as the model for their centers.

The successful, nationally renowned project opened in 1984, funded by a single, $55-million grant from the Packard computer family. One of the first of its kind in the country, the aquarium drew 2.4-million visitors the first year, and now admits about 1.4-million visitors a year, spokesman Ken Peterson said.

The numbers, though, continue to slip a little, he said.

“There was a time when an aquarium was a golden goose, but I don’t know that that’s a given anymore,” he said. “It’s not a guarantee of financial success or of an influx of tourism.”

Still, the Monterey Bay Aquarium in 1992 helped draw tourists who spent $214 million in Monterey.