VENTURA : Council to Vote on Redesign of Plaza

Architect Curtis Stiles’ pride and joy--his redesign of the plaza at the beach end of California Street, for which he gave up his seat on Ventura’s Planning Commission to avoid a conflict of interest--will have to be scaled back, city engineers say.

After bids for Stiles’ plaza design came in well over-budget, engineers cut some of the amenities and simplified some of the accents.

The Ventura City Council, acting as the Redevelopment Agency, will vote on the new, toned down redesign tonight.

Stiles contracted with the city in the spring to sketch a revamping of the space along the beach Promenade between the Holiday Inn and a parking garage. After Stiles had begun sketching his ideas for the job, council members told him that he could not retain his seat on the Planning Commission and still accept the $25,000 contract.

So Stiles, declaring himself humiliated, quit the commission in a huff and nearly walked away from the project as well, until friends persuaded him to stay with it.

The Ventura landscape architect had grand plans for the plaza, including terra-cotta paving, a fountain shooting darts of water out of the pavement and an overall design loosely resembling a fish. The tail of the fish was to be a series of steps leading from the Promenade to the beach.

When the city sent the project out to bid, engineers expected to spend about $435,000 on its construction, which is set to start in October and be completed in mid-February, Stiles said.

But the only valid bids ranged from $684,000 to $770,000, according to city reports.

So Ventura engineers reconsidered, honed the design a bit and set a new limit--$615,000 and no more, to come out of the city’s Redevelopment Agency budget.

Gone were the tail-steps, worth about $100,000, Stiles said.

The fancy paving patterns have been simplified. The benches and trash receptacles now cost less.

Stiles says he will miss the fish tail, but he can live with the new look.

“What are you going to do?” he asked. “You gotta make budget.”