Consultant Cites Uses for Surplus Navy Land : Port Hueneme: The city and Oxnard Harbor District are urged to jointly obtain and develop the 33-acre oceanfront site.

A restaurant, a fishery and a marine education center would enhance an oceanfront strip of surplus Navy land and boost Port Hueneme’s economy, a consulting firm says.

Roma Design Group, an architectural and planning firm, has suggested that Port Hueneme and the Oxnard Harbor District join forces to obtain the 33-acre parcel the Navy is disposing of and develop it into a money-making entity.

The San Francisco-based firm also recommended that officials consider allowing a homeless group to build a shelter at the site.

During a meeting Tuesday night, a 25-member task force that included representatives from the city, the harbor and the Navy met to discuss what guidelines they should use in selecting the potential users for the property, which will be available for development in April, 1996.

Some of the criteria include how much revenue the tenants would generate and whether the businesses would be compatible with a coastal environment.

Although no final plans have been made, city and harbor officials want to create a redevelopment agency to acquire the surplus Navy property. If they are successful, they would lease it to tenants and split the profits.

“It’s too early to say that this is a god-sent gift to the city,” said Tom Figg, Port Hueneme’s director of community development. “But we are excited about its challenges and possibilities.”

Plans to acquire the land began in June, 1993, when the Navy decided to move its Naval Civil Engineering Lab at the property to the Naval Construction Battalion Center in Port Hueneme.

Since then, city officials and nonprofit organizations, including a homeless coalition and education agencies, have been fighting to get a piece of the land.

For a time, it appeared that the coalition of nonprofit groups to aid the homeless had them all beaten.

The Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act of 1987 gave homeless organizations priority on all surplus federal property if no federal agencies wanted the land.

In this case, no federal agency stepped up to claim the Navy property.

But under an amendment to the McKinney Act signed in October by President Clinton, military bases will be exempt.

Now the homeless coalition will have to compete for the property. And instead of going directly to federal officials, it will have to deal with a local committee overseeing use of the surplus Navy land.

Although the U.S. Department of Defense still has the final say over who gets the land, tenants have to meet the needs of the community--in this case, the city and the harbor district.

After raising more than $200,000 in federal and state grants, the city and the harbor hired the consulting firm to evaluate the site and come up with recommendations for possible users.

During Tuesday’s meeting, Bonnie Fisher, a representative from Roma Design Group, advised the task force against allowing a prison to be built on the site and against putting a permanent Cal State University off-campus center there.

A prison would make little use of the site’s coastal advantages, Fisher said, and a campus would use one-third to one-half of the property for parking lots.

Fisher also advised against residential housing in the area because the site is situated at the entrance of the port.

Some of the recommendations by Fisher include water-oriented uses such as a fish farm, an abalone farm and commercial and sports fishing businesses. She also suggested that a restaurant would provide public access to the property.

“The site needs a broad range of users, which would bring a combination of different activities and which would generate revenues to the area,” Fisher told the group. “The site has a wide range of possibilities, and they all should be considered carefully.”

The group has until April to submit a list of selected users to the Department of Defense.