Chuck Kirman / Star staff Pablo Gonzalez, left, and Alvarado Ceja use trowels to smooth concrete at the corner of Douglas Avenue and Carty Drive in Oxnard. The work is part of a $3 million street resurfacing project.

Chuck Kirman / Star staff Signs warning motorists not to park line several streets in the Carriage Square area of Oxnard. Streets in the neighborhood are being resurfaced.

For Sylvia Moreno, it was a case of asphalt envy.

She would not have thought of asking that her street be repaved until she saw the freshly resurfaced streets of a development in a nearby neighborhood, said Moreno, who lives on Douglas Avenue in the Carriage Square neighborhood in Oxnard.

"When I went over to Strawberry Fields, it's like, do mine,' " she said.

Moreno will soon get her wish.

Work began Thursday on an approximately $3 million project to rebuild or resurface every street in Carriage Square, a neighborhood bound by Oxnard Boulevard, Gonzales Road, Doris Avenue and H Street.

By the end of summer, Oxnard will have spent about $16 million to rebuild or resurface streets in Carriage Square and four other neighborhoods: Via Marina, Sea View Estates, Cabrillo and Doris Avenue-Fremont South.

The total does not include $1.8 million set aside for citywide maintenance work, such as pothole patching.

The city is normally limited to spending $4 million a year on major street work. A gas tax revenue bond approved by the City Council last year, however, has generated $24 million.

The city has, in effect, borrowed against part of its future gas tax revenue to speed up its repair schedule, said Lou Balderrama, the city's streets engineer.

Many city streets were damaged by flooding three years ago, and residents complained about potholes, Balderrama said. Spending the money now will prevent having to make more expensive repairs later, he said.

Most of the Carriage Square residents interviewed for this story said they were happy about the repairs, but some complained about parking being prohibited on some streets too far ahead of the work actually being done.

Balderrama said that should not be happening and he would look into it.

"We're trying to minimize the impact, but we need access," he said. On some streets, particularly those that have to be completely rebuilt, the work may take as long as three weeks, he said.

Driving through the area earlier this week, Balderrama noticed the contractor had posted no-parking signs on C Street, which left residents on several blocks without an alternative place to park. So he ordered the signs be removed.

Dave Swan, a Roderick Avenue resident, said the street repairs are definitely needed.

"These streets are very poor," he said. "There are asphalt chunks in the streets."

A more precise work schedule, however, would have been nice, he said.

Swan is now parking his truck on what looked like a previously pristine front lawn. He said one of his neighbors, a four-car household, is making do by parking on their lawn and in the alley behind their house.

Alex Garcia, another area resident, was happy about the work. "Smoother streets are safer for kids," he said.