City Leaders Dispute Gazebo’s Location

For years the issue was money, with the cost of a tiny gazebo for Plaza Park roughly equaling the median price of a Ventura County home.

Now, five years after city leaders began plotting the addition to the historic downtown park, there is a new controversy:

Where to put it.

The City Council threw back a set of plans for the gazebo project to a design-review committee on Monday, after some complained that the middle of Plaza Park is no place to put the structure.

The park’s original gazebo, members of the city’s Historic Preservation Committee say, was on one side.

But that would be too close to the tot-lot playground, say others, who fear the gazebo will lure transients in search of a nice place to pass time.

Officials originally wanted a custom-designed gazebo, but discovered that would be too expensive. They have instead settled on a prefabricated structure that officials say still manages to complement the park’s historic nature.

The cost of the project is estimated at $190,000, with $48,800 of that coming from a state Land and Water Conservation Act grant.

Plans for a gazebo in the middle of the park were drawn by Main Street Architects of Ventura.

The plans will have to be redrawn at an untold cost if design-review and historic-preservation committee members decide the gazebo should sit on the side of the park, which is bordered by Thompson Boulevard, Fir, Santa Clara and Chestnut streets, said Everett Millais, director of community services.

Once the location is set, new plans would take about a month to go before the City Council, which would then have to put the construction work out to bid, Millais said.

Terms of the state grant require the gazebo be constructed by June 30.