VENTURA : Planners Support Mall Expansion

The Ventura Planning Commission approved a $50-million expansion project for the Buenaventura Mall this week, paving the way for the council’s final decision next month.

The commission reached its decision after a grueling 6 1/2-hour meeting that ended early Wednesday morning.

In approving the project, commissioners rejected pleas from Oxnard city leaders who said the mall expansion would hurt Oxnard’s economy and create traffic snarls on the Ventura Freeway.

The proposed expansion has triggered a political feud between the neighboring cities.

Residents opposed to the project’s tax-sharing plan between mall owners and the city have qualified an initiative for the March ballot that could kill the project.

But commissioners carefully avoided ticklish political issues and focused on details related to the mall’s renovation, such as landscaping and the height of a sound wall.

Residents on nearby Dunning Street asked the commission to require developer and mall owner MCA Buenaventura Associates to construct a 15-foot sound wall between the expanded shopping center and their homes.

The developer proposed building an eight-foot wall. Anything taller, mall executive David Jones told the commission, would interfere with existing trees and shrubs, which would have to be replaced at great cost to the developer.

The commission voted on a compromise: The sound wall will start at eight feet at its southern end near Main Street, increase to 10 feet and then 12 feet. The wall will drop back to eight feet tall at Telegraph Road.

The commission also voted to accept a scaled-down landscaping proposal by the developer to plant 302 trees instead of 879 trees. Commissioners also, after debate, agreed to relocate a new South Coast Area Transit bus stop to the northern portion of the shopping center.

The council will decide whether to give the project final approval in January.