A proposal to build a high-rise condominium and hotel complex on the Ventura County coast returns to the Port Hueneme City Council tonight where a decision could allow the city to evaluate the project or kill it.

Slated for a 1.4-acre city-owned parking lot off Surfside Drive near the beach, the 46-story Pacific Pointe at Port Hueneme tower would be the largest structure on the coast between San Francisco and Los Angeles. It's also the first of up to seven high-rise towers proposed for the Greater Port Hueneme-Oxnard area to reach a significant hurdle in an approval process.

Anticipating a larger-than-usual crowd, city officials have moved today's 7 p.m. hearing from City Hall to the Orvene S. Carpenter Community Center, 550 Park Ave.

Proposed by CPH Tower LLC, the roughly $300 million building would feature a four-sided base for a 250-room hotel, topped by a three-sided tower with 200 condominium units. An underground garage would handle parking. The tower would sit on pillars, leaving about two stories of walking and retail services underneath its base.

Critics, however, surfaced soon after developers Harvey Champlin and Ray Mulokas floated an initial plan for a 20-story structure in 2005.

Last year, critics submitted a petition to City Hall with about 300 signatures opposing the idea.

At more than double the size of the largest tower in Oxnard's Topa Financial Center, critics say Pacific Pointe doesn't fit a neighborhood of largely two- to three-story condos and would overwhelm streets with traffic.

"Port Hueneme is a charming beach town," said Marjorie Cole, a member of the group Hueneme People No Towers. "It's not Miami Beach."

Champlin and Mulokas, however, counter that the tower would protect Port Hueneme's quality of life by pumping up to $2.2 million a year into city coffers. About half would come from hotel bed taxes, Champlin said.

Port Hueneme has few parcels to develop businesses that produce

precious sales tax cash, so the tower could resolve the city's chronic $1.2 million budget deficit, they said.

Prime beachfront real estate and the county's temperate climate would lure empty-nest baby boomers as hotel guests or condo residents, Champlin said Monday during an interview.

"We saw an opportunity to create something of value and meet the needs of the city," said Champlin, who characterized the tower as the ultimate "smart growth" solution by using high-density housing to avoid sprawl.

The city first started negotiations with CPH Tower in June 2005, but the agreement expired a year later without further approval. In the interim, Champlin and Mulokas reviewed nearly 25 designs. Over the past six weeks, they have held outreach meetings for the public and business leaders.

Approval tonight would reinstate the negotiating agreement and allow the project into the city's planning pipeline, City Manager David Norman said. "If they (council members) reject the proposed use for the concept, then the project dies," Norman said.

Any final decision would be subject to an environmental impact study and approval by the City Council and Coastal Commission.

Councilwoman Toni Young and Councilman Jon Sharkey can't vote because of a conflict of interest.

Councilman Norman Griffaw declined comment on his vote but said he would assess arguments from both sides before deliberating.

Councilman Murray Rosenbluth and Mayor Maricela Morales also declined comment about a vote but want specific questions answered. Rosenbluth seemed skeptical of preliminary traffic studies that say the tower would add about 1,900 extra car trips a day to Surfside Drive.

Champlin said the number is low because empty nesters have fewer cars and don't drive at peak hours.

Morales said she needs to better understand how the tower could change the city. "Is this what Port Hueneme wants to become?" Morales said. "Clearly this would change the character of the community."