Rose Proves Thorn in Merchants’ Side

With the Rose Avenue interchange an $18.5-million morass of closed offramps and traffic-clogged roads, some stores at nearby retail centers are reporting sliding sales as leery shoppers avoid the area.

Some dealerships in the Oxnard Auto Center report that revenues have plunged as much as 15%, which could mean a hefty loss of sales tax receipts for the city.

And over at tiny Santa Clara Catholic Chapel--now almost entirely surrounded by an ocean of asphalt and mounds of earth--thrift store sales have plummeted 75%, and employees are leaning ever more heavily on their faith.

“We’re right in the middle of it,” said secretary Esther Villicana. “There’s a lot of prayers. The traffic gets horrendous at times.”

These are trying times for the merchants, motorists and customers who work, drive and shop at the acres of retail space that have blossomed by the side of the Ventura Freeway in Oxnard in recent years. And things aren’t likely to get better any time soon.

This winter’s El Nino-spawned storms have wrecked the ambitious 16-month construction schedule in the revamp of the area’s circa-1960s road system, pushing back the projected Dec. 28 completion date.

A one-month closure of the southbound onramps and offramps that was due to end Wednesday has been extended through May 15. And with the entire project anticipated to come in as much as four to six months behind schedule, officials are considering whether to take the unorthodox step of closing the Rose Avenue bridge altogether for four months in a bid to get the project over sooner.

“That’s better than dragging the pain out to April [1999] or possibly longer,” said project manager L.J. Caballero. “We are trying to figure out how we can speed this thing up.”

Speed is something few have associated with Rose Avenue since Oxnard began trying to snare its share of sales tax dollars in an area one land-use expert has dubbed “Sales Tax Canyon.” The first phase of the massive Shopping at the Rose was built in 1992 on the south side of the freeway, while a succession of “big-box” stores have been erected to the north.

The resulting explosive increase in traffic has meant daily car counts over the modest two-lane Rose Avenue bridge climbing from 23,800 in 1990 to 32,000 seven years later. Once the seven-lane bridge is finished, as many as 56,000 vehicles a day are expected to be driven over the Ventura Freeway by 2010.

Since retail growth has largely contributed to the steady increase in traffic over what Oxnard traffic engineer Joe Genovese labels the city’s most congested intersection, it is the stores that are paying 62% of the tab for the improvements.

But if traffic was bad before the project began in September, it now occasionally turns into a sea of smoking cars and seething motorists that leave some merchants wondering where their customers have gone.

Frank D’Agostino, vice president and general manager of Honda of Oxnard, hopped in his car last weekend and went looking for his missing customers. He found them--trapped in a vicious gridlock he could barely believe.

“They were stopped at lights,’ he said. “I’m seeing people making U-turns in the middle of the road. I’m listening to people beeping their horns. . . . I knew it would hurt, but I didn’t feel it would hurt this much.”

Small wonder the dealership’s sales have declined 15%, about double what he expected before the project began. Several of the auto mall’s other dealerships have experienced similar sales drops, he said.

Such tales of monetary woe are not lost on city officials who acknowledge that car dealerships alone contribute 14% of Oxnard’s $14.8 million in annual sales tax revenue. Such heavyweight economic spinoffs make it impossible to tell people to avoid the area.

“We have to keep those auto dealerships happy,” said Cynthia Daniels, the associate planner in charge of the project.

Some area merchants--such as Costco--say they have not been hurt. And restaurant TGI Friday even says sales so far this year are ahead of the same period in 1997. But others, such as Chili’s Grill and Bar, report a “big-time” drop in sales.

“Traffic in the area has been very dramatic,” said Dave Pullen, manager of the electronics store Best Buy. “It’s a challenge for employees to get to and from work, and customers have said it’s a nightmare to get here.”

City officials say they are working on solutions that should make getting around in the area a little less scary for everyone.

Improved directional signs are planned to help drivers using the suggested alternate routes of Rice or Vineyard avenues navigate around the area. The timing of the Rose Avenue traffic lights on either side of the freeway may be adjusted to forestall gridlock. And officials are willing to entertain any other suggestions people leave at the 24-hour message and informational line devoted to the project. The number is 339-1008.

But for now, people like 75-year-old Oxnard resident Lowell Roberts will have to look to the future rather than dwell on the present.

“This will be a good thing, because it’s always been a bottleneck,” Roberts said Wednesday, watching the construction as he downed a hamburger in the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant. “We used to go to Costco. Because of the congestion, we don’t anymore.”