Funding for New Bridge Discussed

Developers who would benefit from improvements planned for Oxnard’s Rose Avenue interchange would help pay for the $16.3-million project, under a financing plan city officials are negotiating with builders.

The proposal, which would clear the way for the Shopping at the Rose II retail complex, calls for replacing the two-lane overpass at the Ventura Freeway with a six-lane bridge and improving ramps.

The city would finance part of the project and count on developers to pay the remainder with special fees based on the amount of traffic their projects attract.

“The assessment is based on the benefit received, depending upon your land use,” said Jim Fabian, a city financial analyst. “If you are a commercial developer, you have a higher traffic generator so you are going to pay a higher assessment.”

Fabian said developers of any new residential subdivisions neighboring the bridge would also pay fees, but existing housing developments would be exempted.

Santa Monica developer Stan Rothbart wants to build a 120,000-square-foot retail complex at Rose Avenue and the freeway. Oxnard’s Land Use Advisors panel approved the project in December.

But the project stalled when Oxnard’s city manager and the Rio School District appealed the decision in January, arguing that the expansion should not go forward until the developer arranged financing for the new bridge.

Rothbart said he supports the proposed financing plan. “It has been our desire to work with the city and to keep the costs within reason,” he said.

Fabian said that if the city and developer can agree on a financing method, construction of the bridge could start in early 1997. Fabian said the city has not worked out how much it will contribute toward the improvements.

The Rose Avenue bridge represents one of several proposed improvements to the strip of the Ventura Freeway that runs through Oxnard. During a City Council meeting Tuesday, officials also reviewed long-term plans by the state to upgrade the Santa Clara Bridge between Oxnard and Ventura at a cost of about $48 million.

In addition, Oxnard has a $24-million plan to widen the overpass at Rice Avenue and improve approaches to the bridge in the next decade.