VENTURA : City Help Backed on Marine Center Study

A committee of three Ventura City Council members recommended Tuesday that the full council fund half of an economic analysis that would study whether a marine education center would lure tourist dollars to the city.

The cost of the $14,000 study would be equally shared by the city of Ventura and the Ventura Port District, which would need to contribute about eight acres of vacant land for the ambitious project.

Members of the city’s economic opportunity and revitalization committee concluded that the study is needed before the City Council can decide whether to support the $24-million center.

A recommendation to spend $7,000 on the city’s share of the analysis will go before the council July 31. A similar analysis earlier this year concluded that the center could operate at a profit.

Supporters say the city could use a portion of the $9 million it has set aside for several tourism-based projects. Early estimates are that up to $5 million in city funds would be needed to build the marine center.

But the City Council also is weighing a number of other projects, including a baseball stadium/aquatic center proposal that also will be considered by the council July 31.

Al Fiori, who is organizing the proposed Ventura Marine Education Center, said a nonprofit organization could be set up to administer the complex and that private donations and gate receipts could offset its cost.

The council needs to move forward with plans because similar centers are being proposed in Santa Barbara, Oxnard and Long Beach, Fiori said.

“Some backers are being wooed away by competing interests,” he said.