Council Says Use Fund for Park, Library, Street Repairs

City leaders have tentatively committed an $8.6-million reserve fund to building a community pool and sports park in east Ventura, redesigning the E. P. Foster Library, and fixing long-neglected trees, curbs and sidewalks.

The money, first set aside by the council in 1987, has been sought for everything from a minor league baseball stadium to a visitors’ convention center to an aquarium.

But after a decade of debate, it took a majority of the City Council only about an hour to put the cash toward what many residents have said they really want: better-maintained neighborhoods, a spruced-up downtown library and an east-side park.

“Sometimes we need to have the courage to invest in things that really count,” Loretta Merewether, Ventura YMCA board chairwoman, said in urging the council to move forward with the new pool and recreational sports complex.

The money for the so-called Ventura Community Sports Park, planned on a 40-acre parcel at Telephone and Kimball roads, will not be officially committed until the City Council approves its budget in June.

However, the 4-2 tentative funding vote--with Councilmen Jim Monahan and Ray DiGuilio dissenting and Brian Brennan absent--is seen as a strong indicator of the council’s intention.

“This city has talked enough about a regional park,” Mayor Jim Friedman said. “Eleven years is long enough.”

Carl Morehouse, a former City Council candidate and member of the East Ventura Community Council, said such a park is long overdue.

“For a community this size not to have a community pool is pretty sad. The difficulty is going to be that if it’s all concentrated on the east end, can the rest of the community reach it adequately?” he said.

Friedman applauded his council colleagues for standing up to what he said was considerable pressure from members of the county fairgrounds board and the tourism community, who still want to see the fund used to build a visitors’ convention center at Seaside Park.

But Councilman Sandy Smith said he does not believe that a large convention center would be the kind of revenue-producing tourism draw that supporters say it would be.

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“Without a large, regional airport, it’s very hard to do that,” he said.

However, he said the city can and should look to lure smaller conferences to area hotels and other meeting facilities.

Although the council may have disagreed on how to finance the sports park, it unanimously approved a package of recommendations to set in motion the plans to build one.

The arrangement hinges on the ability of the Ventura Unified School District to trade a 40-acre citrus orchard it owns at the Santa Paula Freeway near Montgomery Avenue for the nearby Thille Ranch No. 4, a 94-acre parcel owned by a group of 75 local shareholders.

The deal would give Thille Ranch owners a parcel of land designated for development and the school district--not in the business of building homes, anyway--would get double the acreage and a hand in building much-needed sports facilities for city youth.

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Selecting the Thille Ranch site over three other parcels, the council authorized city staff members to begin negotiations with the school district and Thille Ranch owners over the terms, conditions and timing for the land swap.

Meanwhile, the city’s Parks and Recreation Commission will begin hearings to decide what the community sports park will contain.

The city already has $4.1 million set aside to build an Olympic-size community swimming pool, a facility that officials hope could one day draw regional swimming competitions that would fill area hotels and restaurants.

The money for the pool, combined with $5.6 million from the reserve fund, would bring the city within $2 million to $5 million of the sports park’s projected $12-million to $15-million cost.

Some council members acknowledged Monday night that the city may raise more money for the project by selling an 87-acre parcel of city-owned farmland that is barred from development under the SOAR initiative, a greenbelt protection measure passed by voters in 1995.

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Friedman said the city can earn about $1 million if the land is sold as farmland or about $12 million if the city, as mandated by the SOAR initiative, gains voter approval to redesignate the land for development.

Whether voters would be willing to give up a slice of greenery to generate cash for a regional sports park remains anyone’s guess.

“It’s too close to call,” said Councilman Jack Tingstrom, who would support such a move. “It all depends on the campaign. If opponents portray the city as trying to use youth and parks in order to get more development on the east end, it’s going to die hard.”

Meanwhile, council members said the $1.5 million they have tentatively committed to sprucing up sidewalks, trees and curbs will go a long way toward helping the city catch up with long-delayed street maintenance projects.

They have earmarked another $1.5 million to rehabilitate E. P. Foster Library in downtown Ventura. There, city officials plan to expand collections into what had been county office space on the second floor.

Preliminary plans in part look to improve stairwells, lighting and bathrooms, reorganize collections to make the branch more user-friendly and create a student homework center.

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Park Site

The city is talking with developers about swapping the Thile Ranch site (No. 1) with nearby Ventura Unified School District land (No.2). That would clear the way for a community swimming pool and park at the larger site.