Ocean-View Apartments Back Before Planners
More than three years after city planners balked at the complex, developers proposing a huge luxury apartment building are lobbying the community to support what would swallow up one of the last pieces of undeveloped ocean-view property.
And this time, the project illustrates how willing developers are to bend their visions in the pursuit of limited space, and of exactly what city leaders are grooming downtown Ventura to be: a place where people live, work and shop--and don’t have to get into their cars to do those things.
The building, which would be built on 12 acres west of Sanjon Road next to the Ventura Freeway, could include both tourist grabbers like shops, a powerboat museum and a bed and breakfast, and nearly 300 upscale apartments and 20,000 square feet of office space.
City officials say they are focusing on creating more residential property in the area to give downtown’s continued redevelopment a built-in clientele. That includes such projects as a multiuse building under construction at Oak and Poli streets, and projects on Garden and Crimea streets.
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“I believe that we really need residents on both sides of downtown,” said Councilman Ray Di Guilio, who envisions “a 24-hour” community in the area. “To me the glass is half full and they’ll have to fill the rest of it.”
Most of the residential focus has been on the west end of downtown, a factor that still may work against the complex’s developers. Planners rejected the project three years ago because they had hoped the site on downtown’s east side would be developed as a tourist attraction.
Councilman Jim Friedman opposed the building then, but said the changes to the project to include tourist attractions could make him change his mind.
“I think there’s a market for some luxury projects in the city,” he said. “I don’t know if this is the right site, but I’m open-minded to a myriad of possibilities.”
The project goes before the city Planning Commission on Tuesday.
The site is one of the last four ocean-view properties available for development in Ventura. The others are plots at Harbor Boulevard and Seaward Avenue, at the old Texaco tank property next to Seaside Park and in the Port District.
The Triangle site, named because of the shape formed by the borders of Sanjon Road, the railroad tracks and the Ventura Freeway, is zoned for commercial development, and zoning would have to be changed if the developer, JPI Properties, were to build.
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Because the California Coastal Commission would have to approve both this proposal and one at the Ventura Harbor site, the projects ultimately could be pitted against each other, observers said.
But JPI representatives said they are ensuring that the community is aware of their plans. They met with little opposition during their presentation at a Downtown Community Council meeting Tuesday night. In 1997, developers met with resistance from some residents who feared their views would be obstructed.
“I think we’re trying to do this very much hand-in-hand with the various city people,” said Patrick Simons, JPI’s regional development manager. “I think that’s really the difference. Not to say we didn’t listen to anybody in the past, but we’re paying a lot more attention now.”
Simons said that JPI hopes to begin building the $50-million project a year from now.
One downtown merchant thinks the system is working well.
“We’re getting the needed residential. We are in such short supply,” said Doug Halter, president of the Downtown Community Council. “It says a lot about giving guidance to developers.”
