New Port Hueneme Council Plans to Kill RV Park Proposal

Although Port Hueneme’s recreational vehicle resort is on the verge of final approval from the California Coastal Commission, the city’s newly elected council plans to kill the project today by voting to withdraw it from the coastal panel’s agenda.

“We have no choice but to destroy this project at once,” said Mayor Toni Young, a strong opponent of the proposal. “It’s been hanging there for too long. We need to put the RV park behind us and move forward in developing other ways to improve the city.”

Two of the council’s three new members--Robert Turner and Jon Sharkey--agree that the proposal to build the resort on a 10-acre beachfront site near the municipal pier should die.

During the election, Sharkey said, “We had a pretty clear message from the people of Port Hueneme about the RV park. The majority of the people do not want the park, so it’s time to get this behind us and focus our efforts on things we can do.”

The third new council member, Anthony Volante, said he has not yet decided on the issue. The remaining councilman, former Mayor Orvene Carpenter, has been a staunch supporter of the resort.

For five years Carpenter, along with former council members Dorill Wright, Ken Hess and James Daniels, pushed for the resort despite opposition from environmentalists and nearby residents.

Carpenter said Tuesday that he will urge the council to examine the city’s finances before voting to kill the resort.

“It’s a mistake for them to do away with this project without reviewing the city’s financial situation,” Carpenter said. “It’s a waste of time and money and I don’t think they are considering the interest of the city as a whole.”

City officials have estimated that the resort would raise $400,000 a year in revenue. So far, the city has spent $700,000 on environmental and market studies of the project.

But since Turner and Sharkey were elected, they have joined forces with Young in arguing that the RV resort would not increase revenues by that amount and that the 139-space RV resort on the city’s only beach would distort the character of the community.

After the new panel was sworn in Dec. 7, council members asked city staff to examine the impacts of killing the project.

Tom Figg, the city’s director of community development, said the city has no legal or financial obligations to carry it out.

In a memorandum to the council last week, Figg said that if the city wants to kill the RV proposal, it must do so before the end of this week. Otherwise, the request will be on the Coastal Commission’s agenda for its January meeting and is expected to pass automatically.

The city has two alternatives to killing the project. It could ask the commission for a temporary suspension of the project and take that time to examine the city’s finances, or take no action and let the commission grant the city the final permit, Figg said.

If the Coastal Commission does grant the permit it would be good for years, and the city would not be obligated to build the park, Figg said.

However, Turner said he plans to ask city staff to send a letter to the Coastal Commission asking that the permit request be canceled immediately.

“We need to get this over once and for all,” Turner said. “Keeping the project in a drawer will not be enough. The last thing we want is to have the RV park dragging on our shoulders.”