Proposal for Boating Center Resurfaces

Plans for a boating instruction center at Channel Islands Harbor were revived Monday when the Ventura County Board of Supervisors announced it had amended its harbor development plan as requested by the California Coastal Commission.

The project had been stalled since February, when the Coastal Commission told Ventura County it would not approve the two-story development near Oxnard until the harbor’s public work plan was updated.

A blueprint for the marina’s development, the 18-year-old plan did not specifically mention a boating center as an allowable use, commissioners said.

Ventura County supervisors had weighed the possibility of a lawsuit challenging the decision, but decided instead to seek a resolution of differences, said board Chairman Steve Bennett.

First proposed in 2002, the 19,000-square-foot center would offer sailing-instruction programs for county residents, serve as a base for marine research and play host to sailing teams from Cal State Channel Islands.

But the project has faced vigorous opposition from harbor-area residents who say it would bring too much traffic and noise to the picturesque, but underused, harbor.

Environmentalists who were worried about the project’s potential effect on the harbor’s nesting herons joined residents in pushing for a public works plan amendment.

John Buse, an attorney at the Environmental Defense Center in Ventura, said the coalition would not drop a lawsuit it had filed seeking the plan amendment.

The group will be looking for other changes to the project before it withdraws the suit, Buse said.

“Capitulation is not in the works right now,” he said. “The county is in a position to make some changes now that the ball is in its court.”

Buse said opponents of the proposal want supervisors to consider an alternate location on the east side of Channel Islands Harbor. But the board has already rejected that site as too windy and dangerous for novice sailors.

Absent a change in location, residents want a smaller project that does not encroach on a small park at the preferred location near Bluefin Circle, Buse said.

“We think it can be made to work,” he said. “But it’s really up to the county to make it work.”

A decision to move ahead with a public works plan amendment came during a July 13 closed session, Bennett said. The decision was held behind closed doors because it concerned potential litigation with the Coastal Commission, he said.

Supervisors John Flynn and Linda Parks, who have sided with opponents in favoring an eastside location, voted against the Coastal Commission agreement, Bennett said.

Under the agreement, the boating project will return to the county for a public hearing on the plan amendment, possibly by fall, Bennett said. In return, the Coastal Commission has agreed to expedite its own approval process, Bennett said.

Ventura County officials are eager to complete the approval process by year’s end to preserve $4.2 million earmarked for the center by the state Department of Boating and Waterways. The county has agreed to pick up the additional construction cost, about $1.8 million.

“The money is tentatively reserved through next spring,” Bennett said. “If we don’t have this resolved by springtime, someone might say this money has been sitting there for two years and let’s take it.”