The Ventura County Maritime Museum won approval Tuesday for its plans to move to a bigger building on the other side of Channel Islands Harbor.

The museum is now in the harbor's Fisherman's Wharf shopping center, which is targeted for a complete tear-down and redevelopment.

In about three years, the museum will move into a building that is now occupied by the Port Royal Restaurant.

The restaurant's owner plans to close the business and turn the lease on the county-owned property over to the Maritime Museum.

The lease was unanimously approved Tuesday by the Ventura County Board of Supervisors.

"Our board members and volunteers are so enthusiastic about this project," Bill Conroy, the museum's executive director, told the board. "We really appreciate the new location. It's a fantastic piece of land, and we feel that we can really add something to the harbor."

The Port Royal building is about 10,000 square feet, more than twice as big as the museum's current home.

The Maritime Museum has agreed to spend at least $1.5 million on improvements to the building. Once its move is complete, it will pay $1,200 a month in rent to the county, a little more than half of what the restaurant is paying.

The museum will have two years to raise the $1.5 million, submit its plans and get its permits, and another year to do the renovations. The lease can then be extended for 25 years.

The supervisors also inserted a clause during Tuesday's discussion that requires the museum to attract at least 100 visitors a week.

Conroy agreed to that, and pointed out that it's well below the museum's current attendance figures.

"This is being subsidized by the taxpayers, and we're giving it to (the museum) because it's something we want in the harbor, and it's a destination spot that we hope will bring more people in," Supervisor Peter Foy said.

Supervisor John Flynn voted to approve the lease but said he thought the attendance requirement might be "micromanaging" the museum.

"You can put so many conditions on a nonprofit that you kill the whole effort," he said.

Flynn reiterated his support for the museum despite his effort a few weeks ago to split the Port Royal building between the museum and a boating center that the county is also planning for that portion of the harbor.

The Board of Supervisors rejected that joint-use proposal, and the boating center will go next to the museum instead.

They should fit well together, Supervisor Steve Bennett said, because groups of schoolchildren will come to the boating center to learn to sail, and to the museum to see its artwork and learn about maritime life.

"There is a vision that the majority of this board has for the harbor, and part of that is to have that side of the harbor become very attractive for the children of Ventura County," Bennett said. "We are on the verge now of making some progress in carrying this out."