Big Projects, Big Money, Big Decisions Face Council

In the coming weeks, the City Council will consider an impressive list of projects that could cost taxpayers more than $27 million and shape the character of the city for years to come.

They include an $18.7-million minor league baseball stadium, a $7.8-million downtown movie theater and parking structure, and a $350,000 skate park.

The council is also scheduled to discuss repairing two of the city’s most cherished old structures: the wave-battered Ventura Pier and the seismically unsound Peirano building.

As city leaders hunker down for a long, hot summer of debate over these issues and others, one critical question lingers: In a time of tight budgets and lackluster revenue, how can the city afford such investments?

“There is never enough money to do it all,” City Manager Donna Landeros said. “Expectations, hopes and dreams always exceed resources. . . . They are going to have to prioritize.”

In the next two weeks, the council is scheduled to discuss the stadium and the pier, which sustained $2.5 million in wave damage last winter. The repairs are expected to be covered by insurance money.

The council is also expected during that time to pick a site for a skate park, approve a contract for the theater proposal and talk about how to spend $500,000 earmarked for the Peirano building.

But the most controversial and expensive project under consideration is the stadium, which the council is scheduled to discuss tonight. Final consideration of the financial deal is not expected until September.

As it is now proposed, landowner John Hofer would donate a 20-acre celery field behind the Ventura Auto Center for the 5,000-seat sports arena. The city would pay not only for construction but also for maintenance, which could wind up costing taxpayers about $100,000 a year for the first four years.

But some officials have questioned whether taxpayers should pay for so much of the stadium’s costs, and a council committee has spent the last month trying to negotiate a deal with the developer to reduce the city’s share.

*

Meanwhile, developers in Camarillo and Oxnard are trying to put together their own plans for minor league ballparks and have criticized the Ventura project as a giveaway of public money.

With other city projects competing for a limited number of dollars, some council members also say building a stadium would be a bad use of public funds.

“We won’t be able to afford all of them, which is why I think we can’t spend our precious resources on the baseball stadium,” Councilman Steve Bennett said.

But other council members say that a stadium would be a benefit for the community and are optimistic that a better deal can be struck.

“We are being extremely cautious,” Councilman Jim Friedman said. “We are dealing with the public’s money.”

The other big-ticket project to come before the council this month is a proposal for a 10-screen movie theater in downtown Ventura.

A Burbank developer has been negotiating with the city for more than a year to bring a theater chain to the historic business district, which underwent a $4.5-million face-lift last year.

Downtown business owners and city leaders say a movie theater would serve as a catalyst to downtown redevelopment, bringing in new restaurants and upscale shops.

But like the stadium, the theater project has a hefty price tag.

Acquiring the nearly block-long section of property on Main Street where the theater would be built is expected to cost $2.6 million. Earlier estimates set that figure at about $3 million.

Clearing the land, relocating the existing businesses and investing in the project itself are expected to push city expenses to $5 million. Plans for a $2.8-million parking garage inflate the total project costs to $7.8 million.

*

Next week, the council will consider approving a binding contract with the theater developer that would put the plans in motion.

The agreement must be approved for the developer to sign a contract with Century Theatres to operate in downtown Ventura, which would then give the city the contractual security to begin taking over properties.

“Once we receive an executed lease that obligates them in writing, we would then start acquisition . . . probably by at least the first of September,” said Pat Richardson, the city’s redevelopment manager.

The council has unanimously supported the theater proposal, and is expected to approve the agreement. But other steps still must be taken before the theater plans can be finalized, including figuring out the finances.

The city now has about $5 million earmarked for downtown projects that could be directed entirely at the theater. Even then, Richardson said, an additional $2 million to $2.5 million would still be needed to complete both the theater and the proposed restoration of the historic--but empty--Peirano grocery building.

“Where that is going to come from hasn’t been determined,” he said.

City leaders say they will find the money--even if it means pulling dollars away from other projects.

“I think downtown redevelopment is critical,” Bennett said. “We would waste all of our efforts and past expenditures if we don’t button that up.”

Ventura has the money to do some projects, but not all of them, city officials said.

“There is not $100 million lying out there waiting to be spent,” Landeros said. “It really depends on how they finance.”

The council could decide to drain a $9-million fund set aside several years ago to build a convention center. City leaders could also use money earmarked for other capital projects.

But hanging over their decision will be the specter of the 1996-97 budget and projections of lagging city revenue.

The council had to rely on money left over from last fiscal year to close a $1-million gap between revenue and expenditures when it approved a $49.5-million operating budget last month.

*

And one of the city’s leading sources of sales tax revenue, the Buenaventura Mall, is now struggling financially in the face of pending lawsuits over its planned expansion.

The mall’s $1.1-million sales tax base is expected to shrink because retailers with expired leases are now leaving the shopping center.

So with little money coming into city coffers, how can officials consider spending millions on such ambitious proposals?

Some council members contend that flat revenues are exactly the reason why the city needs to invest in projects that will eventually make money, like the theater and possibly the stadium.

“I am not intimidated by lots of zeros after the number,” Friedman said. “I think you have to look out 40 to 50 years, not just one or two years down the road. Because quite frankly, cities are around a lot longer than people are.”