City OKs 150-Home West Side Project

Saying it will breathe new life into the rundown industrial area on Ventura’s west side, the City Council gave final approval to the largest housing project in west Ventura in almost a decade.

The council voted 4 to 1 Monday night to move forward with the 150-home Sycamore Village project. Councilman Steve Bennett voted no, and Councilman Jim Monahan abstained because he works for Bulmer Development, the Canoga Park-based developer that will build the homes.

Councilman Gary Tuttle was absent.

The 106 single-family homes and 42 condominiums are planned for a 19-acre lemon orchard at North Ventura Avenue and Shoshone Street.

The project includes a convenience store and a 53,000-square-foot storage facility. Construction should begin by the end of the year.

Known as the Neel project, because the orchards belong to the Neel family, the development drew attention last year after the Planning Commission initially failed to grant the project the housing allocations it needed.

But after the Neels offered to spend $500,000 building a new Avenue Library, the City Council agreed last spring to let the developer move ahead with the project and borrow up to 180 housing permits from downtown.

The idea of including the library came after Councilman Ray Di Guilio approached the family, descendants of Ventura library donor E.P. Foster, who now has a branch named after him.

But because the development is so far up the Avenue, the company probably will set aside $500,000 to help pay for a more centrally located Avenue branch library--possibly in the soon-to-be-renovated Casa De Anza building.

Di Guilio praised the project for breaking new ground.

Lauri Flack, the head of the Westside Community Council, said she backed the project because it invests in the Avenue, links to the Ventura River bike trail and brings desperately needed money for a new Avenue Library.

“The major issue we looked at when we organized was the investment aspect,” Flack said. “Here is an old family investing in a part of town they have been in for 100 years.”