Oxnard Seeks Public’s Input

Oxnard leaders are asking for a report card graded by the city’s savviest critics: its own residents.

In a five-page survey mailed to 3,000 homes, residents are being queried on a number of high-profile issues: whether the city is growing too fast, whether it should fight or allow expansion of Oxnard Airport and how 75-acre College Park in south Oxnard should be used.

Residents are being asked to rate services provided by police, firefighters, parks, libraries and utilities. Residents are even asked to describe their quality of life--a bold move for a blue-collar city that fights an inferiority complex.

“There might be things we don’t want to hear,” said Mayor Pro Tem John Zaragoza. “But we need to find out anyway, even if it’s not positive. Because then we can correct whatever needs to be done.”

The City Council commissioned the $15,000 survey to help guide a number of high-profile policy decisions. A proposed 2,700-home subdivision at the city’s northern edge must still be approved, so the city is asking residents whether they think the city is growing too fast, about right or too slow.

College Park’s future is in the air. Should it be used for soccer fields or an aquatic center? Or both?

Residents are also asked what they think should happen at Oxnard Airport, a small county-run general aviation strip located near the city’s center. Should it be closed? Or should some expansion be permitted?

“I think we’re doing great,” Zaragoza said. “We have money in reserve. We’ve been repaving streets; we may redo City Hall, and we’ve been helping south Oxnard. We are doing a lot of things for the community and we want to know if we are headed in the right direction.”

Responses will be tabulated in April and made public, said Jeannette Villanueva-Walker, a spokeswoman for the city. The questionnaire will be followed by two commercials, to be aired on cable and network stations, touting Oxnard’s charms, Villanueva-Walker said.

One spot, still in production, will emphasize the city’s temperate weather, its strong agriculture industry, its many restaurants and its proximity to the Pacific Ocean, she said. A second commercial will feature the city’s ethnically diverse residents talking about the city’s libraries, cultural events and recreation opportunities.

“We have wonderful things in our community and we need to get that message out,” Villanueva-Walker said.

Oxnard has long fought an image as being poorer, more crowded and more crime-ridden than Ventura County’s other large cities. But officials say those views are out of sync with recent numbers.

Although the city has a population of 170,000--the county’s highest--it still has plenty of open space, said Steve Kinney, executive director of the private, nonprofit Economic Development Corp. It increasingly is attracting upper middle-class families and high-paying technology jobs, Kinney said.

In 2001, the industrial sector showed the greatest growth with 2,600 new jobs, aided by new arrivals Broadband Technologies, a silicon chip manufacturer; Philips Medical Systems, a maker of biotechnology equipment; and PTI Technologies, which produces lab-quality industrial filtration systems.

And the latest crime statistics show that Oxnard is the fifth-safest medium-sized city in the nation.