Plans for $90,000 Feasibility Study on Oxnard Aquarium Move Forward : Education: Supervisor John Flynn says focus on instruction and research would make center different.

Despite growing competition along the coast, supporters of a Ventura County marine education and environmental center are moving forward with a $90,000 feasibility study for an aquarium-type facility in Oxnard.

The facility, which the county has included in its redevelopment program for Channel Islands Harbor, will probably be smaller than originally suggested, said County Supervisor John Flynn, who has helped spearhead the aquarium drive. Flynn said the center, rather than being a dramatic tourist attraction, would focus on education and research.

In addition to the county, the city of Port Hueneme and the Channel Islands Development Co. Inc., a subsidiary of Martin V. Smith and Associates, have committed to help pay for the study. On Wednesday, the Port Hueneme City Council voted to provide $10,000 for the feasibility study. Oxnard is scheduled to vote Nov. 28 on whether to help fund the study.

The decision to continue planning the project, despite more advanced aquarium projects in both Long Beach and Santa Barbara, was based on a preliminary study that identified a strong market for an Oxnard facility, said Sue VanCamp, vice president of marketing for Martin Smith and Associates, an Oxnard-based real estate firm.

Flynn said he was not sure exactly how the center, with an estimated cost of $25 million, would be funded. At least a portion of the money would probably come from a private donation from developer and real estate tycoon Martin V. (Bud) Smith.

The marine educational and environmental center could not be built until after 1998, when a long-term lease on the proposed site on South Victoria Avenue runs out.

Meanwhile, Long Beach is scheduled to break ground Monday on a $117-million aquarium, and Santa Barbara unveiled plans last month for a $50-million waterfront facility to be opened in 2000. Ventura also has proposed building an aquarium at its harbor, although plans there appear to have stalled.

But many involved with Oxnard’s aquarium project say the other projects, including the one less than an hour away in Santa Barbara, would not detract from their smaller facility.

“We’re really not concerned about those other projects,” Flynn said. “Those projects have their own purpose, their own life. We’ve heard about their projects but we’re going ahead.”

The proposed Oxnard center would have a “uniqueness and a program element that is geared around the natural resources of our community and educational programs,” said Tom Volk, a consultant retained by Ventura County to oversee the project.

Volk said the aquarium proposed in Santa Barbara would focus on the contents and appearance of the channel, while supporters of the Ventura County project are leaning toward emphasizing efforts to restore the ocean’s natural resources. He said that though the word aquarium can be used to describe the projects in Long Beach, Santa Barbara and Oxnard, the individual exhibits and themes would be distinctive enough to differentiate them.

One example, he said, could be an exhibit on fish farming, which would demonstrate methods of trying to restore species.

A smaller aquarium complex has the potential to be successful if its focus and purpose are well-defined, said Ken Peterson, a spokesman for the $55-million Monterey Bay Aquarium, which has been open since 1984. He said the Oxnard facility could be modeled on successful, smaller facilities in Newport, Ore., and in San Pedro--both of which focus on education.

“If they’re hoping to be a major visitor draw, bringing people to Oxnard, that’s probably not realistic. If they’re hoping to increase awareness in the region of marine life, that’s more probable,” Peterson said. “It’s tougher in an environment filled with aquariums. That’s why a distinctive identity is so important.”

The marine educational and environmental center, if successful, should bring additional revenue to its four sponsors, through an increase in visitors to the coast, said Dick Velthoen, Port Hueneme’s city manager. The proposed site lies on the Oxnard-Port Hueneme border, and a parking lot may be built in Port Hueneme on a portion of the naval base.

However, Velthoen expressed reservations about the project, saying that the battles in the process of building an aquarium would be worse than the city’s six-year controversial attempt to build a 10-acre RV resort at the end of Ocean View Drive near Port Hueneme Beach Park.

“I am comfortable with the benefits of this project, should it ever happen,” he said. “I am uncomfortable with the likelihood it ever will.”

The Port Hueneme City Council voted unanimously to support the feasibility study, but members’ comments focused on community resistance to the project because of the additional traffic it would bring to the area as well as other stumbling blocks.

Volk said he thought that community concerns would be adequately addressed as the project comes closer to a final design.

“Right now the group is evolving a vision,” he said. “But the question remains: Who’s going to pay for it and how will it be carried out? If the vision isn’t realistic, it won’t happen.”