OXNARD : OK Near for Study on Retail Complex

With little of the public protest that has characterized past meetings, Oxnard edged closer Thursday to approving an environmental report on a proposed retail complex near the Ventura Freeway.

If hearing officer Richard Maggio approves the report at the next hearing, set for Sept. 13, Oxnard’s City Council can vote on the Shopping at the Rose center’s 197,500-square-foot expansion.

The City Council in April approved only one phase of the Rose Avenue expansion after residents and officials claimed it would create traffic and sewage problems. The council then decided to ask staff members to conduct a second environmental study on the entire expansion to determine whether the increased traffic would overload the Ventura Freeway-Rose Avenue interchange.

Randy Nichols, a consultant to the city, told Maggio on Thursday that the report concluded that “the bridge [over the Ventura Freeway] would operate within its design capacity.”

Oxnard Project Planner Linda Windsor said the city plans to widen lanes and adjust the timing on stoplights in the area before a new overpass and freeway ramps are built by 2000.

Also, hooking the development up to the sewer trunk would not strain the pipe’s capacity as previously feared, according to engineer Patrick Reeves.

Catherine Myers, a staff member of El Rio/Del Norte Municipal Advisory Council, said she was not converted by the report’s findings.

“The city of Oxnard has failed to address the serious problems that exist with the Rose Avenue off-ramp, the bridge . . . and the streets which adjoin it,” Myers said, reading from a statement. “The current and planned roads and bridges cannot support traffic generated” by Shopping at the Rose and other developments.