PORT HUENEME : Study Recommends Against RV Resort

A report released by the California Coastal Commission’s staff Friday is highly critical of Port Hueneme’s plan to build a recreational vehicle resort on beachfront property and recommends that the project be rejected.

The 100-page report prepared for the commission says the city’s plan would unavoidably damage a habitat used by the endangered California least tern, said Merle Betz, a Coastal Commission analyst who helped prepare the study.

Terns have been spotted roosting on the 10-acre site on the southwest tip of Hueneme Beach at night, Betz said.

Other threatened birds, such as the snowy plover and the Belding Savannah sparrow, also use the site for roosting and foraging, Betz said.

“We are not saying they cannot have the RV park in the general beach area,” Betz said.

“But with all of the (environmental) problems with this particular site and configuration, we cannot recommend” that the Coastal Commission give the city permission to move ahead, he said.

Port Hueneme officials are seeking approval from the commission to build a municipally owned RV resort that is expected to add $400,000 a year to city coffers. Coastal commissioners will receive copies of the staff’s report and are expected to vote on the issue Aug. 13.

City officials said they expected the negative report because analysts indicated last week that they saw problems with the proposal. City Manager Dick Velthoen said the city will provide commissioners with its own studies showing that the birds can be protected by erecting fences that will keep people and dogs away from sensitive areas.

He said the city also will point out that the commission has already given permission for the site to be developed as a children’s playground.

“That would require us to grade the property, build berms and set up picnic tables,” Velthoen said. “How is that less disturbing than an RV park?”