Oxnard Postpones Decision on Village West Housing Plan : Development: The proposal to build in an industrial area raises safety concerns. Further study is expected.

Start with an ecologically sensitive wetland inhabited by several endangered species. Add about a dozen heavy industries that house and process tons of toxic chemicals.

Then throw in a bankrupt developer that wants to build 208 duplexes and 143 detached homes right in the middle, and you have the Village West proposal, which went before the City Council on Tuesday night.

Is this a recipe for disaster, as some environmentalists and business leaders contend? Or is this the catalyst that will revive blighted south Oxnard, as some community leaders say?

At the end of a contentious five-hour hearing Tuesday night, the City Council still had not made up its mind. Council members voted 4 to 0 to table the proposal by the financially struggling Baldwin Co. for six months so the plan could undergo further study.

“There’s difficult decisions as a councilman, and there’s extremely difficult decisions,” said Councilman Tom Holden. “And this is an extremely difficult decision.”

Councilman Dean Maulhardt abstained from the discussion because of a conflict of interest: The company he co-owns, Quality Packaging Inc., does business with several companies near the proposed 33-acre site southeast of Hueneme and Perkins roads.

The City Council decided to postpone a decision on Village West to see if Baldwin and the industries near the proposed site can settle their differences and to determine whether the safety risk of building homes near factories is too great.

Several of the surrounding businesses, including Halaco Engineering, an aluminum recycler, and Willamette Industries, a cardboard maker, contend that Village West residents would quickly discover the drawbacks of living next to heavy industries and that the neighborhood would then rally to force the businesses out of the area.

Furthermore, the companies claim that their operations are dangerous and that residents could find themselves in harm’s way.

More than half a dozen chemical spills have occurred at the plants since the early 1980s. In 1986, for example, hundreds of residents north of Hueneme Road had to be evacuated after a spill of bromine, a corrosive chemical whose fumes can be fatal if inhaled.

Critics of Village West say the neighborhood’s residents would not have enough time to evacuate in such an emergency.

The Oxnard fire marshal wrote a letter opposing the development last year, saying that nearby industries stored numerous hazardous chemicals that would pose a safety hazard to residents.

But Fire Chief Randy Coggan said at Tuesday’s hearing that his employees are not toxic chemical experts and suggested that Oxnard hire a consultant to gauge whether the area is fit for residential development.

Impact Sciences, the Ventura-based consultant that performed the environmental study on Village West, concluded that the surrounding industries were all safely handling toxic chemicals in accordance with state and federal laws.

But after questioning by Holden, the consultant admitted that it was denied entrance to seven of the eight major industrial firms near the development and based its findings on secondhand information from the Oxnard Fire Department.

Council members asked for an additional study to be prepared after consultants actually enter the factories.

“It doesn’t leave me with much confidence when you said all eight companies were operating safely and you were only allowed access to one,” Councilman Andres Herrera said.

Many residents of south Oxnard say Village West would be the first positive thing in years to happen to the increasingly rundown area.

“We believe that it can be the beginning of change for our neighborhood,” said Bonnie Trent, chairwoman of the Southwinds neighborhood council. “We want the character and face of south Oxnard changed.”

But Holden warned that Village West was not a panacea for the ills of south Oxnard, adding that development may be the last thing the area needs.

“If you have an area that is in jeopardy--and I’m just quoting the residents--of going downhill, you have to think about what it takes to make it go uphill,” Holden said. “I’m not sure that [the solution] is more apartments.”

The Newport Beach-based Baldwin Co., which declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy two months ago, showed up in full force for the meeting on Village West, considered the first step in the developer’s plan to build more than 5,000 residences at Ormond Beach.

James P. Baldwin, who owns the company with his brother Alfred, told council members that he had not attended such a meeting in years but thought it necessary to show up and personally state his commitment to Oxnard.

“I’ve had to bite my tongue, and I felt a lot of emotion about some of the things said about my company,” Baldwin said in response to comments by several Oxnard residents that the company owes creditors millions of dollars and cannot be trusted to complete Village West.

“We’re putting our money where our mouth is,” Baldwin said. “We’re confident.”

Baldwin explained Tuesday that the company declared bankruptcy because its chief lender, General Electric Capital Corp., canceled its $60-million line of credit. He said the company was back in business after the same lender granted the Baldwin Co. a $70-million credit line.

However, the builder’s creditors are opposed to the credit line, saying it gives the lender too much control over the company, and a bankruptcy judge has scheduled hearings on the proposal for Friday and Saturday.