Council Studies Suit on Abandoned Project : Environment: Plaintiffs seek payment of attorney fees and a 25-year building moratorium at the Port Hueneme site where an RV park had been planned.

The Port Hueneme City Council met in closed session Monday to discuss a 6-year-old lawsuit that persists even though the beachfront development targeted by the suit was scrapped in December.

The Surfside III Condominium Homeowners Assn. and Sierra Club sued the city of Port Hueneme in 1989 to halt development of a recreational vehicle park on 10 acres at the end of Ocean View Drive at Port Hueneme Beach Park.

The lawsuit contended that the environmental impact of the development would be harmful to the habitat and to the California least tern, an endangered shorebird that nests on nearby Ormond Beach. The owners of the 375 condominiums next to the site also said the project would ruin their ocean views, be an eyesore and violate their property rights.

Although the RV park project was dropped shortly after new council members took office Dec. 7, the lawsuit is still pending.

The homeowners and Sierra Club are seeking $200,000 in attorney fees and at least a 25-year moratorium on building at the site, said Tom Brigham, homeowners association president.

“We also want the city to work with us to refurbish the area to its indigenous state as wetlands,” Brigham said.

The association and the Sierra Club have presented several settlement offers, but city officials have rejected them, Brigham said.

“Our bottom line is no building there,” he said. “We have given them two or three settlement offers, but so far all of our offers have been rebuked. We would still consider a settlement offer that is decent, but we don’t have a great deal of hope that we’ll see a decent offer.”

No action was taken at the meeting.

Port Hueneme City Atty. Don Kircher said the council discussed parameters of a settlement negotiation.

First conceived in 1989, the project was approved last year by the council. City officials had hoped that the income from the RV resort would raise revenue for police and other city services without increasing taxes or assessments, Kircher said.

The California Coastal Commission approved the development last year, but in July rescinded its decision at the city’s request.