OXNARD : City Asked to Delay Vote on Development

The developer planning to build 351 homes in Oxnard near factories and sensitive wetlands has asked the City Council to delay voting on the controversial project for another month.

City officials were scheduled to vote on the Baldwin Co.’s 33-acre Village West subdivision Tuesday. But at a recent City Council meeting, Councilman Andres Herrera expressed concerns about the project’s viability and the Newport Beach-based developer’s financial wherewithal.

The City Council is expected to approve Baldwin’s request to put off considering the plan until Sept. 19.

“We basically wanted to make sure that [Herrera] has all the information he feels he needs,” said Baldwin spokesman Louis Malone. Baldwin filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in July after a decision by the company’s major lender, General Electric Capital Corp., to cut off its $60-million credit line. Baldwin has since reached an agreement with G.E. and has gotten the credit line reinstated.

Environmentalists want to block the building of 208 duplexes and 143 houses near Hueneme Road because the parcel is just down the street from the Ormond Beach wetlands, inhabited by several endangered species. The parcel also sits within several hundred yards of an oil field service company and Oxnard’s waste-water treatment plant.

“My concern is to review that to see if that is really an appropriate area for housing,” Herrera said.

Malone said an environmental impact report concluded the neighboring industry would not endanger the site.

He also said the company would create a larger buffer zone between the housing development and the factories.

According to Malone, the agreement with G.E. will enable the company to proceed with the Oxnard development.

“We are very, very committed to the city of Oxnard,” he said.