City Council Begins Plan to Fund Freeway Overpass at Rose Avenue

Capping more than 10 years of talk about a new bridge over the Ventura Freeway at Rose Avenue, Oxnard leaders took the first steps in a $15.8-million financing plan Tuesday that should enable the city to build a six-lane overpass by 2000.

The City Council voted 4 to 0 to begin setting up a special assessment district that will ask business and property owners to help pay for construction on the basis of how much traffic their developments generate. Councilman Dean Maulhardt was absent.

Under the plan, the city will provide about $4.3 million toward building the new bridge that will include two 5-foot-wide sidewalks and a bike lane.

Despite the City Council’s approval Tuesday, the financing plan could still fall apart if more than 50% of the property owners in the 900-acre assessment area protest the arrangement. But Oxnard financial analyst Jim Fabian said developers and other property owners appear to support the plan.

“People really seem to want to see the bridge built and they are appreciative that the city is stepping in and paying its fair share of the improvements,” Fabian said.

The existing two-lane overpass--which many residents say creates traffic bottlenecks and poses a danger to children who cross it--has become a thorn in the side of the city and developers alike.

Angry residents in recent months have packed the City Council chambers to protest any development at Rose Avenue without a solution to the traffic problems. And the congested bridge has stalled a Santa Monica-based developer’s plans to expand the Shopping at the Rose II retail complex by 120,000 square feet.

The city does not plan to assess individual residential homeowners under the financing arrangement. Before Oxnard sets up the assessment district in July, officials will hold public hearings May 21 and June 4, giving property owners a chance to submit written protests.

The plan also calls on Oxnard to put up front another $2.5 million--money city officials say will be recouped from businesses when they build on undeveloped parcels in the assessment district and pay their share.

Businesses and other property owners will pay the remainder of the construction tab based on land use.

General commercial property owners will be assessed $41,997 per acre; auto dealers, $17,605 per acre; business research park owners, $23,205 per acre; commercial office space owners, $30,104 per acre; and $15,231 per acre for heavy manufacturers.

Under the plan, builders will pay about $1,039 for each single-family home they construct and $566 for each condominium.

Developers can either pay cash when they build their projects or spread the payments over 20 years with interest.

Stanley Rothbart, the Shopping at the Rose II developer, could not be reached for comment Tuesday. But in a recent interview, he said he supported the assessment plan in concept.

“I have always been supportive of property owners paying an equitable share of the infrastructure improvements that are necessitated by the traffic generated,” Rothbart said.

Rio Elementary School District officials were concerned that the assessment might undermine their plans to ask voters in the next two years to approve a multimillion-dollar bond issue for new school construction.

Sal Godoy, a school district official, said the city has assured him that individual homeowners would not be hit with a bill for the bridge construction.

“Our concern is that if [the assessments] were added to a homeowner at a later time, it might have an impact on our bonding capability,” said Godoy, who wants the span project plan to include a separate pedestrian bridge.

The school district and Oxnard City Manager Tom Frutchey appealed a decision by Oxnard’s Land Use Advisors panel earlier this year to allow the Shopping at the Rose II project to go forward.

District officials argued in their appeal that the traffic generated by the expansion might trap emergency vehicles and endanger the lives of children who cross the bridge to attend school and sports practice. Frutchey called the panel’s decision “premature,” as the city had not found the money to build the span.

The City Council is set to decide whether to uphold the appeal during its April 16 meeting. Some city council members remained uncertain about how Tuesday’s approval of a financing plan for the new bridge would affect their decision on the development.

“I am really not sure whether this is sufficient for me to make a decision to allow construction out there,” said City Councilman Andres Herrera. “I don’t plan to subordinate the quality of life of the residents just to have some development out there.”