PORT HUENEME : Flood Risks Cited at Proposed RV Park

A proposed RV resort at Hueneme Beach shares similar flooding risks as the Ventura RV park devastated by February’s rainstorms, according to environmentalists who plan to join other groups in challenging the oceanfront project at a public hearing tonight.

Al Sanders, Sepse group conservation chairman for the Sierra Club’s Los Padres chapter, said drainage canals adjoining the 10-acre parcel near Hueneme Pier could overflow in severe rainstorms. But Sanders said the potential flooding is less of a concern than the $2.3-million city project’s impact on endangered birds.

“The issue which the Sierra Club is most concerned with are the impacts on not just one, but a number of endangered species, and the many more sensitive species that deserve some degree of protection,” said Sanders, a Port Hueneme resident.

City Manager Richard Velthoen called it “a ridiculous comparison” to suggest that the Port Hueneme resort faces anywhere near the same flooding risk as the Ventura Beach RV Park at the mouth of the Ventura River.

“How can you compare a flood-control channel that drains two or three square miles to the Ventura River Basin, which is huge,” said Velthoen, who called the comparison a desperate attempt to block an environmentally sound project.

Many beach-area homeowners have been fighting the proposed 143-site recreational vehicle resort, which a city consultant estimated would eventually produce $400,000 a year for the municipal treasury and allow the city to repeal its so-called view tax on beach properties.

“This particular resort will not provide the immediate windfall the city claims it needs to get through future deficits,” said David Kantner, vice president of the Surfside III Homeowners Assn.

The Port Hueneme Planning Commission and City Council are scheduled to hold a joint public hearing at 7:30 tonight in City Hall to consider the project’s environmental impact report.