Conservancy to Buy Oxnard Wetlands Tract

Preservationists won a major victory Tuesday in their 20-year effort to create a wetlands preserve at Ormond Beach when Metropolitan Water District officials voted to begin negotiating the sale of a key parcel to the state Coastal Conservancy.

The shoreline property, a 309-acre tract in south Oxnard jointly owned by the city and the MWD, has been lauded by environmentalists as the linchpin to future restoration of Ventura County’s largest remaining tract of undeveloped coastline.

“It’s been a long time,” said Jean Harris, an Oxnard environmentalist who’s been pushing for the preservation of the wetlands since 1979. “But there’s still a lot of work to be done. I’m 80 now. I think I’ll [live to] see the wetland restoration plan.”

The conservancy hopes to eventually acquire and restore about 750 acres of wetlands and grasslands along the county’s coast, said Peter Brand, a conservancy official who oversees local projects. The prized property is home to a number of endangered seabirds.

Using money from several parkland bond measures passed by state voters, the agency has so far spent $9.5 million for a 265-acre tract at Ormond Beach from Southern California Edison and has offered to purchase as much of the 309 acres that the city and MWD are willing to sell.

If a deal goes through, MWD would retain 20 acres for a possible future desalination facility, and Oxnard may keep another 20 for an extension of an existing paper mill.

Other acquisitions by the conservancy are also in the works in the area, Brand said.

The conservancy considers Ormond Beach a high priority because such coastal habitats are extremely rare in Southern California, officials said. The agency needs the MWD property to create a self-sustaining wetland outside the reach of development.

The conservancy is already hiring consultants to work on planning and designing a restored Ormond Beach, to include a wildlife preserve, nature trails for the public and an environmental education center, Brand said.

“These types of opportunities don’t come along very often,” Brand said. “You never know how long bond money will last. Yeah, you can set it aside, but there’s a sense of urgency.”

Although the MWD would retain some acreage, some board members had previously expressed concerns about selling surplus land they might need for environmental mitigation if a desalination facility is built, Brand said.

So the conservancy offered a compromise.

The MWD could sell the property to the state agency at fair market value but could still do environmental mitigation at the site or possibly even build a desalination plant at another conservancy-owned property, Brand said.

“They can reserve that right and work an agreement out with us,” he said.

MWD board member Glen Peterson said the water agency did not need all its Ormond Beach property, so a sale to the conservancy makes sense.