Council to Vote on Bridge Finance Plan

City officials are set to take the first step tonight in approving a special financing plan to pay for a $15.8-million bridge over the Ventura Freeway at Rose Avenue.

If the City Council votes in favor of the plan, Oxnard will establish a special assessment district requiring businesses and property owners to pay a tax based essentially on how much they use the span.

Council approval could eventually allow a Santa Monica-based developer to go forward with a 120,000-foot expansion of the “Shopping at the Rose II” retail complex.

Oxnard City Manager Tom Frutchey and Rio Elementary School District officials earlier this year appealed the decision by Oxnard’s Land Use Advisors panel to approve the project. They argued that it was premature to allow construction before the city arranged a financing plan for the new bridge.

School officials said the existing two-lane bridge would become even more dangerous to children who use the structure to cross the freeway if there was increased traffic from the shopping center.

Frutchey, who has said the interchange would become a hopeless bottleneck with more cars traveling to an expanded center, wanted assurances that a new bridge would be built.

Under the plan, the city would pay about $4.3 million or 38% of the cost of building the new six-lane span that would include two 5-foot-wide sidewalks and a bike lane. The plan also calls on the city to provide $2.5 million that would be recovered from businesses when they build on undeveloped parcels in the 900-acre assessment district.

The city does not plan to assess individual homeowners. The rest of the money would come from assessing businesses and other property owners, including St. John’s Regional Medical Center, Shopping at the Rose I and II and Oxnard’s auto center.

Assessments would vary: General commercial property owners would pay $41,000 per acre, while heavy manufacturers would pay $15,000 per acre.

The council plans to hold two public hearings on the district May 21 and June 4.

Property owners have a right to protest the assessment.

“If greater than 50% of the property owners submit a written protest, the district is abandoned for a year,” said Jim Fabian, city financial analyst.

Sal Godoy, a Rio school district official, said he will ask the city to consider building a separate pedestrian bridge or modify the proposal for the span.