VENTURA : Dredging Fees for Keys Homes Renewed

As Ventura Keys homeowners weighed an offer to settle their suits over the cost of dredging their back-yard canals, the Ventura City Council renewed $1,965-per-home dredging fees for another year.

Every year, by state law, the council must approve the tax in the Porto Bello Assessment District, a cluster of about 300 Ventura Keys homes where owners must pay to clean the waterways surrounding their property.

The tax was approved Monday night on a 4 to 2 vote, with Councilmen Jack Tingstrom and Jim Monahan opposed. Monahan said that an engineer’s estimate of $3 million to dredge the canals might be far too high.

“We have information that it can be done for less than $1 million,” Monahan said. “I don’t think it’s fair to assess these people based on erroneous estimates.”

Meanwhile, Keys residents have until May 26 to accept an offer by city negotiators to settle a 1991 lawsuit that challenged the city’s authority to charge fees for the dredging.

Under the settlement proposal, Keys residents accepting the settlement would be charged $685 a year for future dredging, retroactive to 1993. The settlement also would allow annual increases to the tax of $64.

But several plaintiffs in the lawsuit have said that they would not agree to any tax, and vowed to continue their fight in court.

Those who reject the settlement must still pay the $1,965 annual fee.

The assessment approved Monday night includes $1,031 per lot for maintenance, and another $934 to pay off a bond issued to fund previous dredgings.