OXNARD : City Joins in Study of Marine Center Plan

Oxnard has become the last of a four-member consortium to commit to pay its share of a $90,000 feasibility study that will evaluate a proposed marine education and environmental center.

The City Council on Tuesday night approved spending $26,667 to develop a conceptual plan and to study the economic viability of the aquarium-type facility. The city joins the county, Port Hueneme and the Channel Islands Development Co. Inc. in providing seed money for the proposed $25-million center at Channel Islands Harbor.

The project is consistent with the council’s goal of developing a multiple attraction tourism center in the city, said Richard Maggio, community development director.

“We cannot remain stagnant,” Mayor Manuel Lopez said before the council meeting. “We have to try to develop projects that will enhance the community.’

The feasibility study is to be completed by July 1, 1996.

The Oxnard marine center is one of several in various stages of development in the region, including projects proposed in Ventura, Long Beach and Santa Barbara. The study will take those competing facilities into account, Lopez said.

“As part of the development process, we would have to look at the ones being developed in the proximate area of our market and we would not do anything that would be competitive with them,” he said.