Settlement on Dredging Costs Offered : Ventura Keys: It would cut homeowners’ yearly tax by nearly two-thirds. But some vow to continue efforts to overturn the assessment.

Ventura Keys residents were handed a onetime settlement offer Wednesday, a move to end a four-year legal battle over who should pay for dredging the waterways surrounding the luxury homes.

Under negotiation for more than two years, the proposal would reduce property owners’ yearly tax by about two-thirds. It also would establish a committee to advise the City Council on the maintenance of the canals.

But some homeowners Wednesday accused Ventura officials of browbeating them into a settlement, and vowed to continue their legal battle to overturn the annual assessment.

About one-third of the neighborhood’s 302 property owners sued the city of Ventura and several other agencies, claiming it is the government’s responsibility to pay for maintaining the waterways.

*

The majority of the siltation and debris that clogs the canals comes from storm drains and the nearby Arundell Barranca.

The City Council, however, formed the Porto Bello Assessment District in 1991, charging Ventura Keys homeowners most of the cost to dredge the waterways. A group of property owners filed suit within months.

But as attorney fees climbed to more than $450,000 for the homeowners and in excess of $1 million for the city, negotiators for both sides have tried to settle.

Homeowners, including those who did not join the lawsuit, have 45 days to accept the city’s offer to roll back the tax. After May 26, assessments on property owners who do not sign the agreement will remain at about $2,000 a year.

Councilman Gregory L. Carson, who represented the city on the negotiating committee, said the deal was drawn up after most Ventura Keys homeowners agreed to seek a settlement several years ago.

*

“I wanted to do what was fair and right,” Carson said. “What we’ve come up with after 2 1/2 years is the best deal possible. The other option is to pursue it in court, and that’s not what we wanted to do.”

Under the proposal, homeowners who have been paying more than $1,960 a year in assessments would have their payments reduced to $685, retroactive to 1993. There are, however, built-in increases of $64 each year per parcel.

The money would pay for periodic dredging of the canals that snake through the neighborhood and a study on whether the city’s primary drainage slough could be relocated later.

Negotiators for the homeowners said the settlement offer is the best the landowners can hope for, short of going to trial.

“It boils down to money and practicality,” said Harvey Wilson, a Ventura Keys homeowner and chairman of the Save the Keys committee. “We’re just a little group here against the county and the city.”

Wilson said a better resolution would be to relocate Arundell Barranca, which dumps rainfall runoff, silt and other debris into water channels around the Ventura Keys.

“We’re concerned with pollution and siltation,” Wilson said. “Everybody knows what the solution is: removing the barranca from the area.”

Rob Miller, a Ventura Keys resident and trial attorney who helped hammer out the agreement, said he will be one of the first to sign the proposal.

“To carry forward with the litigation will probably cost another $500,000,” Miller said. “Even if we won that case and a court said the city or county is responsible . . . they would appeal.

“We’d be tied up in litigation for three to five years,” he said.

Miller also said the deal for the first time limits the assessment, and that the lack of any tax ceiling has driven down property values.

“Would you buy a house in the Keys if a broker said you have a $2,000 assessment, and there’s no cap?” he asked. “You’d have to have your head examined.”

But other property owners say they will never agree to what they consider an “illegal tax.” Instead, they will await their day in court.

“These (city officials) think everyone in the Keys has a lot of money,” said Nick Starr, a Keys resident and commissioner of the Ventura Port District, one of the agencies sued by the landowners.

“They’re trying to soak 300 people at the end of the pipeline,” Starr said. “But the pipe starts up there in the city.”

Paul Masi is another Ventura Keys resident who said he would not sign the proposed agreement. He said the $64 annual increases will push up the yearly assessment to its current levels soon enough.

“It’s going to cost me money--money that I shouldn’t have to pay,” Masi said. “It’s an illegal tax and we’re going to beat it in court.”

Retired airline pilot Robert Therrien is another Ventura Keys homeowner who will not sign the proposal. He said there is no incentive to repair the drainage problems that clog the waterways

“This stuff’s been studied for 25 years,” Therrien said. “It doesn’t need to be studied anymore.

“What needs to happen is that the appropriate government agency needs to move the barranca back to its historical course,” Therrien said.

“They’re using our tax dollars to fight us,” he said. “Their intention all along was to drag this out long enough, figuring they could eventually force something on us.”