Hope for the Harbor

It has become the Holy Grail of redevelopment: the pedestrian-friendly complex of restaurants, record stores and movie theaters that will instantly transform a sleepy nowheresville into a happening municipal money maker.

Possess that elusive chalice--in this case some trendy coffee shops and an oversized bookstore--and fun-thirsty tourists will flock to your entertainment oasis like they do to Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade or Pasadena’s Old Town. Or so the theory goes.

The latest entrant in the quest for the recreation dollar is Ventura County, which is hoping over the next decade to turn Channel Islands Harbor near Oxnard into a “destination-point” for moneyed suburbanites, far and wide.

County officials are looking to mix in more thoughtful development, conceding that the often-empty mishmash of shops and eateries that now surround the harbor happened “without a clear plan.”

Their hope: by making the county-owned harbor a hip place to hang out, maybe the county can reverse a steady pattern of declining revenues and drastically increase the money it makes from leases at the waterway.

County rents, now totaling less than $3 million a year, could rise to more than $8 million by 2022--twice what they would be under the status quo--if the so-called master plan is implemented, according to revenue projections.

The Board of Supervisors will discuss the plan today.

“It seems hard to get anything going down there,” said Supervisor John K. Flynn, whose Oxnard district includes the harbor. “It’s really not in that bad of a condition. People are simply not going there anymore.”

Harbor merchants say it’s about time the county did something to address their worsening plight. A county report earlier this year stated that restaurant revenues were down 40% since the 1989-90 fiscal year, with several establishments going bankrupt, and retail sales down 23%.

“Nobody survives here very long,” said Michel Nagar, owner of the Regata Italian restaurant, one of several eateries to occupy the same waterfront space this decade. “It’s tough. If the weather is good, we get some business. But if it’s bad, forget it. We need something new.”

Complicating the county’s challenge are the concerns of some nearby residents who worry that the communities of Silver Strand, Hollywood Beach and Hollywood-by-the-Sea could soon become, as one put it, “Shopping-by-the-Sea.”

The Beacon Foundation, an area coastal group, is asking supervisors to put off their review of the harbor plan today in favor of a full public hearing.

“The tail is wagging the dog,” said Beacon member Lee Quaintance, who is concerned about the plan’s traffic impact on the already busy intersection of Victoria Avenue and Channel Islands Boulevard. “This is a small-boat harbor, not a retail destination.”

Under the master plan, the county Harbor Department would pursue two “catalytic projects” to spur the transformation of the waterway, one on the east side and the other on the west.

The idea behind the projects would be to immediately draw more visitors and set a high design standard for future development.

The first project, which would take place on the east end at the intersection of Victoria Avenue and Channel Islands Boulevard, would be a Mediterranean-themed shopping center modeled after the highly successful Promenade at Westlake in Thousand Oaks. It would open around 2004.

“The goal is to achieve the pedestrian-friendly ambience of Old Town Pasadena and Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade,” according to the master plan.

The second project, which would exhibit “a relaxed atmosphere and resort appeal,” would add more retail shops and restaurants to the existing west-side businesses, connecting them with more waterfront walkways. It would open between 2006 and 2008.

Among the goals of the master plan is to make traveling between the two shopping hubs “part of the attraction” by adding electric trams, water taxis and more harborside walking space.

Because many of the county’s harbor leases do not expire until 2025 and beyond, the master plan would probably require buying out some existing lessees who are “unwilling or unable to redevelop.”

County officials are hoping to accomplish this without spending any money by using revenue from new leases to buy out old ones. Moreover, county officials would consider deferring or even returning rent to give lessees more incentives to invest in the face lift.

As he ate lunch in the harbor’s near-empty food court Monday, Garry Kraft, who lives at the marina, said he understands the need to change. But the Port Hueneme chiropractor also worries that the harbor may soon lose the carefree air that led him to make it his home.

“As a businessman, I think it’s a great idea,” he said. “But we’re going to lose the charm of this area. There are half a dozen movie theaters within minutes of this harbor. What’s another one going to bring?”