Talks Start on Buying 7 Interchange Parcels

The Ventura City Council has begun the process of acquiring land for ambitious improvements to the Victoria Avenue interchange with the Ventura Freeway, opening private negotiations with the owners of seven parcels.

Council members discussed the purchases in closed session this week, but took no action.

While details of the ongoing negotiations remain undisclosed, there is little doubt that Ventura will acquire the property, which is split among five landowners.

“A year from now, when we advertise [contracts] for that project, we’ve got to have that property,” said Nazir Lalani, the city’s top transportation engineer.

The intersection is one of the busiest in the city, and about $12 million is scheduled to be spent on improvements in upcoming years. The first $9-million phase is slated for completion by the end of 1998, Lalani said.

The initial phase calls for redesigning Valentine Road and the southbound freeway offramp, as well as widening Victoria beneath the freeway underpass. An additional project would reconfigure the northbound onramp.

Recent appraisals of the parcels have been completed by the city, but no prices have been disclosed.

Most of the properties are owned by Ivy Lawn Cemetery, Southern California Edison, James Salzer Trust and Shell Oil Co.

The nearby Gateway Title Building, which the city also needs, is owned by a group of four investors.