Coastal Panel to Consider Plan to Build Apartments at Harbor

As a bankruptcy judge prepares to rule on the Ventura Port District’s plan to pay off a $22-million debt, the California Coastal Commission today will consider allowing construction of up to 300 apartments along the harbor waterfront.

Port district officials say approval of the zoning change is crucial to keeping the debt-plagued harbor economically viable and protected under federal bankruptcy status.

“It’s a very critical part of the plan to create new value,” port district General Manager Ed Wohlenberg said Tuesday. “If we can’t create new value, we don’t have anything to share with creditors.”

Commissioners will consider the proposal during a meeting at the Holiday Inn, 450 E. Harbor Blvd.

On Thursday, port officials will try to convince U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Robin Riblet that they have a viable plan in place to pay down the port’s debt. The plan includes the residential development and a proposal to restructure loans at Harbor Village.

After considering disclosure statements that detail debts and assets, the judge can either accept the so-called debt adjustment plan as filed, order it to be strengthened or rule the plan unacceptable.

If the plan is not accepted, the port district risks losing its bankruptcy protection, and creditors could begin seizing assets.

Filing for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection Aug. 20, 1993, the district owes $4 million to the California Department of Boating and Waterways, and $18 million to other creditors.

Its single largest debt is to Ventura Group Ventures, which in 1991 won a $15.7-million breach-of-contract court judgment when the port district pulled out of a development project.

Still, even if the debt plan and the zoning change are approved in coming days, it could be years before any housing is built on the vacant land that juts into the middle of the harbor near Schooner Drive and Anchors Way.

The housing project has no developer, will require hard-to-get city housing allocations, and deed restrictions on the land would block development until 1999.

The land has been the site for several development proposals over the past 18 years--a shopping center, a hotel, a $25-million marine education center, a convention center.

But port consultants have decided that the best use for the land is housing, which they believe would give port merchants the regular year-round foot traffic they lack. The district projects that the development could generate $600,000 annually.

In other action Wednesday, the commission will continue a hearing over the appeal of a county-issued permit to install a 35-foot Pacific Bell cellular telephone tower at Faria Beach.

“My argument has always been that we don’t want to look at these damn things,” said Bill Stratton, a Faria Beach homeowner who filed the appeal.

Other opponents argue that the permit violates state coastal planning standards and that the tower could disturb wildlife and pose potential health risks.

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FYI

Today’s California Coastal Commission meeting will be held in the Presidential Ballroom at the Holiday Inn, 450 E. Harbor Blvd., Ventura. The meeting begins at 9 a.m.