VENTURA COUNTY ROUNDUP : VENTURA : $4 Parking Fee at Harbor Eliminated

Bowing to pressure over a new $4 parking fee, port district commissioners have decided to eliminate the charge at Ventura Harbor.

The fee, which was imposed last month, will end Sept. 19, said Oscar Pena, Ventura Harbor general manager. The decision was made Wednesday during a meeting between Harbor Village merchants and harbor officials, he said.

The parking charge was imposed to help pay for a study of parking lot usage in the Ventura Port District, Pena said. The study, conducted by Los Angeles-based Standard Parking, was aimed at forecasting the area’s parking needs.

With officials considering the area as the potential site of a new aquarium, port district representatives wanted to be sure there was adequate parking for the future, Pena said.

But now, after only one month, officials will cut short the three-month study because they have enough information to gauge parking trends, Pena said.

Merchants and residents had been clamoring to eliminate the parking fee. Although those who spent $5 or more at Harbor Village’s more than 40 shops and restaurants could get their parking tickets validated, merchants were concerned that the fee was driving patrons away.

Ventura City Councilman James L. Monahan, a declared candidate in next March’s county supervisor race, issued a statement this week criticizing the Ventura Port District Commission for approving the parking fee at its July meeting.

Monahan said, “The harbor commissioners should tender their resignations to the Ventura City Council who appointed them in the first place unless they rescind the fees immediately.”

But Port Commissioner Stan Whisenhunt, who spoke with Monahan on Wednesday, said he was working to end the parking survey even before Monahan issued his statement.

“I don’t want to leave the impression that I reacted to Jim Monahan’s call,” Whisenhunt said. “It was my opinion we should end [the fee and the study] as soon as possible.”