Ventura Council Narrows Park Site List to 4

VENTURA — Dismissing one site as too remote and another as too small, the new City Council unanimously voted Monday night to further narrow a list of possible east-end park sites from six to four.

The City Council also voted to have city staff members begin negotiating with property owners for the top four sites, and begin hashing out plans for how to actually pay for and build the park.

The city has talked for years about building a park on the east end, but efforts have been bogged down by neighborhood resistance to some sites and a lack of money.

Mayor Jim Friedman emphasized the importance of Monday night’s decision.

“What we’re doing is really symbolic,” Friedman said. “We have the opportunity to set in motion a park on the east end.”

Friedman said he intends to move the process along as quickly as possible, so ground can be broken within two years.

Ventura suffers from a severe shortage of park space, particularly on the city’s east end.

According to the city’s blueprint for development, three acres of park space should be set aside for every 1,000 residents. Eventually there will be 54,000 residents on the east end, requiring more than 110 acres of park space.

Currently, there are only 14 acres, according to city officials. On Monday night, the council considered a list of six possible sites for an east-end park. The sites were ranked, based on location and the cost of buying and developing the land.

The top-ranked site was a 77-acre plot at Telephone and Ramelli roads. A 100-acre site at Telephone and Kimball roads is ranked second. Then, in order, a 51-acre site south of Telephone Road extending east to Montgomery Avenue, a city-owned parcel of 87 acres at Telegraph Road and Petit Avenue, a 53-acre site at Telegraph Road and Wells Road, and a 35-acre site north of Telephone and Cypress Point Lane.

In addition to ranking the sites, a city staff report also laid out the cost of building a regional park.

The cost of building a park on one of these six sites--including the land, grading and improvements such as fields and facilities--ranges from $8.3 million for the Cypress Point site to $26.3 million for the Kimball Road site.

The council eliminated the fourth-ranked site as too small and the fifth-ranked site as too remote.

With costs so high, and the city budget already so tight, building a park will take a strong commitment from the City Council.

Former City Councilman Steve Bennett urged the city to dip into the city’s $9-million holding fund--formerly set aside to build a convention center at the fairgrounds.

Other council members reiterated their intention to follow through and build the park.

“The public has a lot of interest in this issue,” Councilman Sandy Smith said. “It’s time to send a strong message to city staff that this is a really important issue.”

Added Councilwoman Donna De Paola: “I would like to be breaking ground real soon. It’s something that needs to get done. If we don’t get the pool, if we don’t get the [recreational] center, at least we will get that part of it done.”

Meanwhile, the City Council approved an ordinance that would protect Ventura farmers against lawsuits filed by neighbors annoyed by the sights and sounds of normal agricultural operations.

About 3,200 acres in the city’s planning area are farmland.

Under the final draft of the ordinance, first introduced by former Councilman Bennett in October, all properties in the city would be subject to a disclosure statement informing buyers that there is agriculture in the area, and that it is allowed to continue as long as it is conducted lawfully.

Originally, only properties a certain distance from farms would have been required to provide such a disclosure statement.

Finally, the City Council approved a contract with a Ventura construction company for the first three-quarters of a mile of the six-mile Ventura River Trail.

The first portion of the trail--which includes a bike and pedestrian trail, as well as an equestrian trail--will be built by Nye & Nelson Inc. of Ventura, for $199,083.

That portion of the trail should be completed by May 1, according to Everett Millais, director of community services.

City officials still await several million dollars in federal transportation funds, and final propertyright of way clearances on the remaining portion of the trail.

But Millais estimates that the final stretch of the trail--which will eventually form the last link in a bike route running from the mountains in Ojai to the sea--will be completed within two years.