VENTURA : Hearing Planned on Freeway Interchange

Ventura residents can sound off at a City Council hearing tonight on plans for redesigning the troublesome interchange at Seaward Avenue and the Ventura Freeway.

One Caltrans plan, which would cost $9.5 million to carry out, calls for widening the Seaward freeway overpass and constructing a new southbound on-ramp on Peninsula Street to relieve the congestion at the crowded interchange. In addition, the Peninsula Street on-ramp would replace the one on Seaward Avenue.

Residents of the Ventura Keys objected to a previous Caltrans plan, which called for knocking down a bluff that shields the properties from freeway-generated noise.

The new plan calls for retaining most of the bluff. But some Keys residents oppose the redesign because they say it would cause too much traffic.

“It’s going to inconvenience local residents,” said Bob Therrien, who lives on Beachmont Street in the Keys.

Two City Council members say they also have their doubts about the wisdom of a new on-ramp at Peninsula Street.

“I’m really vacillating between (moving the on-ramp) and keeping it at Seaward,” Councilwoman Rosa Lee Measures said. She said she is worried about the traffic problems a Peninsula Street on-ramp would cause for nearby residents.

Councilman Jack Tingstrom said he is “dead-set against the Peninsula Street on-ramp” because of traffic concerns.