Competing Visions of Ormond

After decades of study, Shirley Godwin has sharpened her vision for Ormond Beach, a coveted stretch of white sand and shoreline on Oxnard’s south side.

The community leader sees it as an uncut ecological jewel, a place that--with polish--could blossom into a wildlife preserve complete with nature trails, a visitors center and a living laboratory for marine research.

She sees room for creation of a small village shopping center, anchored by a brew pub or a seafood restaurant to serve as an economic engine for preservation efforts.

Most of all, with a community meeting scheduled later this month to review prospects for the property, Godwin sees a prime opportunity to shape a strategy that can benefit nearby neighborhoods while protecting Ventura County’s largest remaining tract of undeveloped coastline.

“We want to see this pre-planned and developed in such a way as to preserve the wetlands, enhance the area and make it a very special place,” said Godwin, who has lived about a mile from Ormond Beach for nearly 40 years and belongs to groups studying its future.

“Everyone is conscious of the fact that whatever decisions are made, whatever happens to that land, we’re going to have to live with the rest of our lives,” she said.

Long an area of contrasts, the 1,404-acre beachfront property is once again in the cross hairs of competing interests.

Wedged between the Pacific Ocean and the fertile Oxnard Plain, it is home to some of the county’s most fragile wetlands and some of its heaviest industry.

The area is host to a paper mill, a metal recycler, a sewage treatment facility and a power plant. Yet its shallow freshwater lagoon and saltwater marshes provide habitat for a variety of birds, including threatened and endangered species.

In an effort to save Ormond Beach from the urban sprawl that has consumed much of the Southern California coastline, environmentalists and others have scrambled over the years to shield as much of the property as possible from development.

Even now, the California Coastal Conservancy is trying to buy hundreds of acres of wetlands and open space--including 309 acres jointly owned by the city and the Metropolitan Water District--as part of a statewide effort to preserve coastal habitat.

At the same time, city planners are sorting through a flurry of development interests for Ormond Beach, including a pitch by Houston-based Sysco Corp., North America’s largest food-service marketer and distributor, to establish a regional headquarters.

City planners say it is important to provide opportunities for economic development at Ormond Beach, because voter-approved growth-control restrictions have made the area one of the few prime development sites left in Oxnard.

Residents in surrounding neighborhoods, meanwhile, have drawn up a map detailing a more environmentally friendly approach.

Potential uses for the property are in the early stages of development. But city leaders have made it clear that before they start considering the merit of individual projects, they want to see a master plan for the entire area.

“We know for sure that we don’t want any more piecemeal development,” Oxnard Mayor Manuel Lopez said. “I think part of the problem is that there are so many competing interests--some don’t want any development, others want it wall-to-wall. Somewhere in between, we are hoping to have a meeting of the minds.”

This wide stretch of wind-swept beachfront has inspired its share of failed, if not far-fetched, development ideas over the last 20 years.

A Los Angeles company in the mid-1980s pitched a theme park dedicated to the Space Age, complete with a 150-room hotel designed to look like a space station. Other proposals include a regional airport, a horse-racing track and a multimillion-dollar marina-based residential community.

Many of those projects were rejected by planning officials. But while the process has been tedious and often frustrating, planners say it also has provided valuable lessons as they move toward sketching a master plan.

“We have gotten the benefit of literally years worth of public expression on the community’s goals and objectives for Ormond Beach,” said Steve Kinney, president of the Greater Oxnard Economic Development Corp.

“I think there have been opportunities for opinions to be aired aplenty, so that the city can now legitimately put a plan forth that really responds to the community and that the council can use as a guidepost for projects to go forward.”

Kinney and development Director Matthew Winegar will unveil a conceptual plan for the area at a 6:30 p.m. meeting Feb. 20 at the South Oxnard Center.

The plan looks at efforts by Sysco to buy a 50-acre chunk of the 309 acres jointly owned by the city and the MWD, Kinney said. It also highlights interest in 22 acres by neighboring Willamette Industries and Pacific Vehicle Processors, which prepares vehicles for transfer to dealerships.

Pacific Vehicle, which is looking to expand existing operations in the area, also has expressed interest in buying 38 additional acres of adjacent privately owned property.

Kinney said the conceptual plan will touch on interest from property owners north of Ormond Beach to build housing on 250 acres outside the city limits. And it will examine an offer from the Coastal Conservancy to buy as much of the city-owned land as possible as well as additional acreage in the surrounding area.

But planning officials say that, though they may be exploring economic development opportunities at Ormond Beach, they want to dispel any notion that they don’t care about protecting the wetlands or other sensitive habitat.

To that end, they say their plan designates more than 100 acres of the city-owned property for wetlands and beach habitat. They also say that as much as a quarter of the overall site could eventually be set aside for such open-space uses.

It’s a big beach, Kinney said, and there is enough room to satisfy all the competing interests.

“We want to provide a realistic assessment of the possibilities available in the future for that land,” he said. “Call me crazy, but I actually do believe we are dealing with a plan that has a high and achievable degree of success.”

It may not be an easy sell, however.

Many environmentalists and neighboring residents, long at odds with the city over what to do about Ormond Beach, remain wary.

They point to a closed-door discussion held last week by the Oxnard City Council on Sysco’s purchase offer. That review came less than a month after council members called for a comprehensive plan for the property.

“I’m wondering if the staff heard what I heard from the City Council,” said community leader Sylvia Preston, chairwoman of the Cypress Neighborhood Council and a key member of the Oxnard South Revitalization Committee.

She was among a handful of residents who showed up last week to urge the council to delay a decision on selling property until a master plan is in place. And she will be among those at the upcoming meeting pushing for more ecologically sound development alternatives.

Preston favors finding ways to restore the wetlands and envisions creation of a gateway to Ormond Beach that would provide parkland, educational facilities and beach access to residents as a key part to preserving the ecological site.

Preston and others are particularly opposed to efforts by Pacific Vehicle to purchase privately owned land south of Saviers and Hueneme roads, saying the company’s expansion plans will block beach access.

“If it becomes more and more accessible to residents, then I think their level of commitment to preserving it will increase,” said Preston, who believes that enhancing the beach area also will help revive south Oxnard neighborhoods.

“There should be an overall plan, and beyond that an overall commitment, to do the wisest and best planning possible at Ormond Beach,” she said. “If you just slap in development, if you cover this patch and that patch with asphalt, you’re not going to get a second chance.”

It is a delicate balancing act, this effort to protect Ormond Beach while promoting economic development.

A 1999 report by the Washington, D.C.-based Urban Land Institute helped provide some common ground. After months of study, experts recommended that the wetlands and beach be cleaned up and enhanced to become the centerpiece for a coordinated mixture of homes, businesses and natural areas.

Peter Brand, the Coastal Conservancy’s point man in Ventura County, said the agency remains in closed-door talks for acquisition of all or a portion of the city-owned property and is trying to restart negotiations for hundreds of acres of Southern California Edison property at Ormond Beach.

A deal in the works to buy the Edison land fell through last year after the utility decided to hold on to the property in the wake of the state’s energy crisis.

“The Coastal Conservancy has always acknowledged that we can do wetlands restoration and still leave room for development that will meet the community’s needs,” Brand said.

While Ormond’s future remains unclear, it is certain that any development proposal is sure to face a slew of local interest groups, all with a stake in the beachfront property.

“The moment of truth for Ormond Beach is approaching,” said Oxnard resident Jean Harris, who, as co-founder of the Ormond Beach Observers, has worked for two decades to preserve the coveted coastline.

“I have dreamed of the day when Ormond Beach receives its rightful status as a precious nature preserve,” she said. “Perhaps that day is dawning.”