City Would Pay Group to Drop Plan for Center : Port Hueneme: Homeless advocates seek to provide services on surplus Navy land. Officials envision other uses for property.

Port Hueneme officials said Thursday that they are willing to pay off a homeless coalition to abandon its attempt to establish a social services center on an oceanfront strip of surplus U.S. Navy land.

The coalition wants to use some of the buildings on the 33-acre site--currently home to a Navy laboratory--to provide counseling, job training and medical care to the homeless.

But at Thursday’s meeting of a task force overseeing the reuse of the property when the Navy gives it up next year, Port Hueneme officials said the land should be used only for projects that will spark the city’s economy or take advantage of the property’s prime coastal location.

“The building they want sits in the middle of the property,” said Tom Figg, Port Hueneme’s community development director. “That greatly constrains what you can do with the surrounding properties.”

Until late last year, homeless advocates had first rights to acquire surplus federal land under the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act of 1987. But an amendment to the act signed by President Clinton last fall exempts military bases.

Nevertheless, federal law still requires cities with military bases that are closing to somehow address the needs of the homeless.

Figg said the city is trying to balance those needs with the need for economic development, and has suggested paying the coalition $27,000 a year for 30 years to drop its claim to the land.

But Karen Ingram, vice president of Lutheran Social Services, the lead agency of the coalition, said money alone won’t solve the problems of the homeless in Port Hueneme and other areas.

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“What we need are buildings to provide these services,” Ingram said. “Twenty seven thousand dollars wouldn’t even pay for a staff member with benefits.”

Under the proposal presented Thursday, Figg said it could take years for the homeless coalition to receive any money. The city of Port Hueneme and the Oxnard Harbor District, which are jointly trying to acquire the land, would first have to earn a profit on projects established there.

In addition, as part of the homeless strategy, the city would subtract from the $27,000 annual payment any grants it gives to agencies in the coalition.

At an earlier meeting Thursday, Figg and land-use consultants barely mentioned the homeless advocates’ request. Instead, they outlined projects they plan to submit to the City Council next month for approval.

Those projects include a public promenade and restored lighthouse at the south end of the land and port-related uses, such as the expansion of the shipping area, at the north end. In between, plans call for the creation of fisheries and a California State University marine-biology lab among other uses.

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It will cost about $8 million to clean up the site and renovate structures, Figg said.

Figg said he hopes to come to an agreement with the homeless coalition by May 1, when the city and harbor district plan to submit their proposal to the U.S. Department of Defense, which has the final say on how the surplus Navy land will be reused.

If the issue is not resolved by then, the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development will be called on to settle differences between the two sides.