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Developer's plans for apartments at wharf spark concerns
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Courtesy of EMC Development EMC revealed design proposals Monday for Fisherman's Wharf. The project calls for 143,000 square feet of shops and restaurants and a wide public promenade.
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Just about everyone who attended Monday's open house by the new developer of Fisherman's Wharf said they'd like to see the Channel Islands Harbor property rebuilt, but not many were excited about the developer's plans for as many as 800 apartments on the site.
EMC Development, which was awarded the lease last year on the county-owned property, presented its preliminary designs to their largest public audience yet at Monday's open house.
About 120 people packed a conference room at the Embassy Suites Mandalay Beach Resort in Oxnard to hear EMC's vice president and the project's architect discuss their plans, and to give them an earful of questions and comments afterward.
The plans that EMC displayed were similar to the ones it showed last fall to homeowners associations and business groups in the harbor area. They call for a full redevelopment of the 11-acre property, with as many as 800 apartments, 143,000 square feet of shops and restaurants, a wide public promenade along the waterfront and most of the parking underground.
A mixed reception
One new detail revealed Monday is the "working title" of the project. EMC refers to it now as "Waterfront Channel Islands Harbor," or Waterfront CIH, rather than Fisherman's Wharf.
"What we have at Fisherman's Wharf now is broken," said EMC Vice President Derek Jones, referring to the empty storefronts and crumbling buildings. "What we are proposing, we think, is a lot better."
His reception was mixed, at best.
There were gasps and groans from the audience when he discussed the size: three to four stories of apartments on top of one story of commercial buildings, topping out at a maximum of 60 feet.
"With everything you've shown us, I still can't get past the magnitude," said Janey Anderson of Hollywood-by-the-Sea. "It's huge; it's out of scale for the area."
"When people hear the numbers they kind of freak out," Jan Hochhauser, the project's architect, acknowledged. He said he took many steps to keep it from appearing intimidating, including setting it back from the street and breaking up the mass of the buildings with courtyards and walkways.
Jones said that 800 units represents the most that the company is considering. The project can't be scaled back too much, he said, because the stores and restaurants won't succeed without a "critical mass" of people living nearby.
"The last thing we want is to have more empty shells of stores in the site we're redeveloping," he said.
Theadora Davitt-Cornyn, who lives in the harbor at the Paz Mar Apartments, said she understands EMC's concerns but still wishes they would trim the project a bit.
"It looked overbuilt for that site," she said. "I think it has to get smaller."
'Wish list' of stores
Davitt-Cornyn said her own "wish list" of stores in the new center includes Trader Joe's and Whole Foods — stores that she knows won't come to the harbor without some residential development. Perhaps, she said, EMC could build 500 or 600 apartments instead of 800, taking the project down by a full story.
Apart from the sheer size, the open house attendees were most concerned with traffic. The corner of Victoria and Channel Islands Boulevard is already congested, and EMC will have to pay to correct any additional traffic problems that its development causes.
"That's the first thing I see, is the traffic jam," said Earl Beck of Hollywood-by-the-Sea. "We have one lane each way into Silver Strand. Can you imagine if there was a tsunami and everybody had to get out?"
EMC's plans are still on the drawing board and won't be submitted to the county of Ventura until late 2009 at the earliest, Jones said. After that, they must be approved by the California Coastal Commission.
"Realistically, we're talking about the early part of 2011 as a best-case scenario before we get something really operational," he said.
Posted by AnaCapa on April 22, 2008 at 7:34 a.m. (Suggest removal)
"Waterfront CIH"? Is that the best they can do? How about the "New Fisherman's Wharf" That gives it a fresh new sound, yet it's still familiar. Fix Fisherman's Wharf, don't replace it. Residents don't like it when out of town developers come in and destroy their history. Sort of like they're doing to "Wagon Wheel". There's a lot of history at Wagon Wheel being razed by developers who have no clue.
Posted by VoiceofReason on April 22, 2008 at 8:42 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Change can be a very scary thing and a lot of people resist change just because it brings along with it an unknown and fear of the unknown is a reasonable thing. A few years ago a city in California had a blighted area in downtown that was going to be demolished but the people wanted to save their heritage. They redeveloped the area building new shops, resturants etc on the ground floors with condo's and apartments over them. Some buildings, even an old bank, were converted to hotels. Many people were against this and complained about excessive traffic, noise etc. But the Gaslamp in San Diego was built and has become a major plus for the city. Now this program at the harbor may not be a Gaslamp, but it could be the start of something this area needs, proper revitalization. Look at what the city of Oxnard isn't doing in downtown Oxnard, they built a theather and parking structure, got a few shops to come in, but where are the people to support?? who wants to go downtown when it looks and feels like a city thats 75 years old and run down. Done properly this kind of revitalization can be the positive change we need here in Oxnard and Port Hueneme. We need to start looking to the future, not the past, status Quo is a sign of stagnation.
Posted by chair on April 22, 2008 at 11:56 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Twenty years or so ago, while we were living in Indianapolis and only visiting Oxnard every year, my wife's best friend demanded we visit CI Harbor: "You've gotta see what they've done there!" she exclaimed.
We went. We agreed. And every visit thereafter saw us heading to the Harbor's many interesting restaurants.
Fifteen years ago we came to stay. Again, the Harbor was at the top of our list.
Then the county got greedy. The interesting places (and people!) had gone -- and so did we. All that gets us down to the Harbor these days is the Sunday Farmers Market.
MMMMMmmmmmmm. Wonder if moving that over to the unused parking lot south of our present Fishermans Wharf and running seven days a week might help? Toss in another live entertainment venue, add some outdoor tourist-trappy entities, rehab the existing buildings north of the area, ensure only excellent purveyors occupy them (no gummintal entities!). Make the place somewhere folks want to go regardless of where they're from! Make it like it used to be!
Excise the onerous County grab of the purveyors' gross sales! Perhaps we voters can achieve this by reinstalling Flynn and removing the rest of the jokers with pols who actually care more about people than they do about their campaign contributors and other rich, influential, persuasive and totally self-involved oligarchs.
Posted by denanas99 on April 23, 2008 at 11:30 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I am really excited about the change coming to the harbor.... I was at this "workshop" and was really shocked on how little the public actually listened or even slightly opened up too. The speakers couldn't even get out their ideas with out a bunch of cranky people jumping down their throats. Everyone was so worried about the streets not being wide enough "wait and see how bad traffic is at 4th of July or the Lights parade". Wait a min. if your upset about the traffic that happens in the area only 2 nights out of the year... THEN STOP ADVERTISING THESE EVENTS OFF THE 101 FREEWAY AT DEL NORTE!!! When there are more surveys completed of the area and of the traffic in the surrounding areas they will be better able to answer the cranky peoples hostile questions. Victoria Ave. has already been expanded from C.I. BLVD. up to 5th. St. to 6 lanes. I'm sure in the future those 6 lanes will make its way all the way to the 101. But unless the county and City of Oxnard see that the community wants a project like this, we won't know what those land surveys will say about the traffic.
As for the 800 rental apartments its a maximum projected amount for the land they are not saying that there will be that many, they are saying that is the maximum amount! You would think that people would be excited to bring change to an area that so desperately needs it. Instead they would rather keep it at its disgusting and decrepit looking condition, like the corner of Hemlock and Victoria. I understand that it is hard to keep a business going there now because the county is taking a rather fat 20% from the local business, but thats something to take up with the county not the builders. And I fully agree that the highway robbery the county is commiting here needs to change. But the effect of adding a few hundred more rental apartments to the area would be awesome for a younger crowd or for our Military people to rent. (that would cut down on your precious traffic time).
I want a reason to want to go down to the harbor... instead I like everyone else I know, head up to the Ventura harbor... why can't we have something to be proud of in our harbor a place where people can roam shop and dine in a rather pleasant surrounding. I think this is a great opportunity for our community. Oxnard is changing fast wether you like it or not. Why should we hold the Wharf back?
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