River Ridge Clears Last Key Obstacles

Eliminating two final sticking points, builders of the 416-home River Ridge West project have agreed to pay $4.45 million up front to help construct an adjacent municipal golf course and to donate land for 54 low-income dwellings nearby.

That paves the way for City Council approval next month of one of the largest housing projects in Oxnard history.

“We’re 99.9% in agreement,” developer Dave O. White said Thursday. “It’s just the attorneys sending the documents back and forth to settle little items. I think the project is at the point where everybody’s satisfied.”

Across Gonzales Road from Oxnard High School, the 330-acre development would include 416 luxury homes, two churches, an elementary school and an 18-hole golf course that the city would build and own. The houses would be priced at $400,000 to $600,000 each.

The development agreement is set for Planning Commission consideration on Oct. 5 and is on the City Council agenda for Oct. 24.

“The deal has made tremendous progress toward conclusion,” City Atty. Gary Gillig said. “We are as close to a deal as we can get [without signing]. But we want signatures on the dotted line.”

Developers must still sign a final agreement with an Oxnard poverty law firm--Channel Counties Legal Services--to donate 3.1 acres for construction of 54 rental units next to the new luxury community.

The firm has agreed to drop its federal lawsuit that argues that the project failed to provide housing for poor people as required in the city’s housing plan.

White said all parties have agreed to the settlement.

The city also needs to reach final agreement with the Ventura County Regional Sanitation District, which owns 90 acres on which the city golf course would be built.

But only a minor issue--rights to a water well on the leased property--needs to be resolved, White said.

“I think it will be over soon, in the next month,” said Bill Smith, general manager of the sanitation district.

Oxnard officials see the golf course community as a picturesque gateway into their city, since the golf course would border Victoria Avenue for about one mile as southbound motorists cross the Santa Clara River bridge from Ventura.

While polishing the city’s image, the new subdivision also gives executives who work in the city a place to live, they said.

“I think in general it would be a good thing,” Mayor Manuel Lopez said. “It provides us a more balanced approach to housing in the city. We need more higher-end housing, and on those three acres it will also provide housing for farm workers.”

The city also desperately needs more school and church sites, and this project provides both.

“It seems to me they have everything in line, after all the time they’ve put into it,” Lopez said.

Owners have been angling to develop the flatlands south of the Coastal Landfill for more than a decade.

In 1990, the Oxnard council rejected a petition to build on the acreage because of its value as farmland.

But officials left open the possibility of future development.

And by 1994, the landowners--White’s Coastal Ranch Properties, the Swift Family Trust and the Mormon Church--were moving forward.

The project has been planned in detail since 1996.

But with this project has come controversy.

The city’s first River Ridge Golf Course was part of a debt-ridden golf course-hotel project from the 1980s that is still siphoning $2 million a year away from basic city services.

City officials say none of the problems of the old River Ridge project exist with the new one and that the new course will make a healthy profit for the city.

The key to its financial viability appears to be the developer’s recent commitment to pay a $10,700 special assessment for each of the 416 houses up front, so the city would not have to borrow so much to build the $8-million golf course, thus slashing carrying costs.

“In order to make this thing work it’s got to be financially sound for the city,” Councilman Dean Maulhardt said. “If the city had to borrow 100% of [golf course] construction cost, it would not be feasible. Coming in this other way makes it feasible.”

Like Maulhardt, Councilman Tom Holden said he would make no decision on the deal until it’s fully explained at the Oct. 24 hearing. But he said he thinks the deal now may make sense.

“Is this going to be different than River Ridge 1?” Holden said. “It will be because it pays for itself.”