Ventura to Abandon Levy for Dredging Keys’ Waterways

VENTURA — Putting an end to one of the most bitterly disputed tax assessments in city history, the City Council voted 6 to 1 on Monday night to abandon an annual levy against Ventura Keys residents to dredge the canals that cut through the affluent community.

Only Councilman Gary Tuttle voted no.

The council also voted to begin a mediation process with Keys residents to try to move beyond costly lawsuits and arguments and focus on how much future dredging will cost and who will pay for it.

The passage of Proposition 218 in November prevents the city from levying maintenance assessments against constituents unless they agree, by a majority vote, to pay.

City Manager Donna Landeros said the new law does not mean that the waterways will automatically be dredged by the city.

“Prop. 218 does not obligate the city to pay for future dredging,” Landeros said. “We may have created a stalemate. Residents do not have to pay and the city does not have to dredge.”

Some Keys residents seemed eager to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.

“The mediation process is time-consuming and expensive. We are trying to save the city and residents money,” said Harvey Wilson, co-chairman of Save the Keys, a community group representing 160 property owners. “With integrity and fairness on both sides, we can resolve this.”

In a report to council members, City Atty. Bob Boehm said it is “anticipated that the majority of property owners within the . . . assessment district would reject an additional levy at this time.”

That leaves the city stuck trying to figure out how to pay to dredge about two miles of man-made waterways that would become clogged with sand and dirt without routine dredging.

The Porto Bello Maintenance Assessment District was formed in 1991 to provide for the ongoing dredging of the Keys’ waterways and repair of the rocky riprap on the banks.

The district levies an annual assessment to cover the cost of dredging about once every seven years. Property owners adjacent to the waterways pay 75% of the cost; the city pays the remainder. Residents are typically assessed between $1,000 and $2,000 annually.

The maintenance district currently has $1.4 million set aside for future dredging. The most recent Keys dredging four years ago cost more than $3 million.

But city officials are looking into less expensive ways to dredge.

If the city can win permission to dump the dredged sand and silt into the surf to replenish already eroded areas, dredging could cost as little as $760,000, according to Richard Parsons, the former general manager of the Ventura Port District, who now serves as manager of the city’s dredging program. But a city staff report estimates that the new method could cost $1.4 million to $1.6 million.

The waterways were last dredged in the winter of 1992-93, and dredging is scheduled to begin again in late 1998.

Steve Chase, assistant to the city manager, said the city should hear from regulatory agencies by fall about whether the city will be able to obtain permits for the “surf discharge” method of dredging.

At that point, the city would begin mediation with Keys residents about how to pay for the dredging.

Parsons said preliminary tests show that sand in the Keys’ waterways is very clean, meaning that the chances of obtaining permits is good.