PORT HUENEME : City Hearing Set on Car Storage Yard

The Port Hueneme City Council will held a public hearing today on whether to allow a temporary automobile import storage yard on a 10-acre vacant site on Port Hueneme Road.

Residents near the site, between J Street and Ann Avenue, have contended that the yard would drastically increase traffic and noise, and diminish the character of their neighborhood.

“We just don’t think that (Port) Hueneme Road is prepared to handle the traffic that the facility would bring to the area,” said William Turner, who lives across from the site.

However, city officials said traffic in the area will not increase.

“The traffic already occurs,” said Greg Brown, an associate planner for the city. “The only difference is that instead of being driven to Oxnard, the cars would be stored in Port Hueneme.”

Residents are also upset that the city plans to waive requirements for landscaping the area.

But city officials said it would not be economically feasible to spend more than $1 million to build parking lots and sidewalks for a temporary facility.

In addition, yard owner Michael Poston has agreed to pay the city $1,818 a year, the equivalent of what he would pay in property tax had the site been landscaped.

If the permit is granted, Poston said, he would build a turning lane off the road, which would allow easier entrance to the facility and decrease the possibility of traffic jams.

No more than an average of 60 cars a day, or 1,800 a month, would be driven from the port to the yard, and the facility would be closed in the evenings, Poston said.