Residential Project Will Benefit Oxnard

For years, the Baldwin Co. has been trying to develop a residential complex on a weed-covered patch on Hueneme Road in south Oxnard. Overwhelmingly, the citizens of south Oxnard support the Village West project that would create an attractive gateway to the city, broaden the tax base and help change the neighborhood from blight to bright. All qualifying procedures have been completed and approvals given, except for final authorization from the mayor and City Council.

The unseemly delays have resulted from continuous, vociferous and tiresome protests registered by people who do not live in our community. The protesters argue that they want to protect the wetlands, preserve valuable agricultural land, obviate any health hazards resulting from industries operating in the area, leave room for those industries to expand and save the city from any liabilities resulting from Baldwin’s fragile finances.

Hogwash.

The Village West development is further removed from the wetlands than the existing industries and is less of an ecological threat; the only agriculture the site has known for years has been the cultivation of weeds. If the industries now operating at the site are engaged in unsafe practices, then my health is at risk and the industries should be ordered to take immediate corrective measures--and we certainly could not tolerate any expansion of these hazardous industries. As for Baldwin’s finances, the company has already given assurances that it has secured the necessary lines of credit to proceed.

It is really time to stop listening to the naysayers, the doomsayers and the permanent malcontents and get on with the improvement of south Oxnard.

MARVIN PETAL

Oxnard