PORT HUENEME : Mayor Announces Reelection Bid

Port Hueneme Mayor Orvene Carpenter announced Wednesday that he will seek reelection to the City Council, even as opposition to the city’s plan to build a beachfront recreational vehicle park continued to mount.

Surrounded by a group of supporters in front of City Hall, Carpenter said he will attempt to retain his seat for four more years in order to see the city successfully build and operate the RV resort on 10 acres at the southeast tip of Hueneme Beach.

The project is already in the pipeline and stability on the council will help see it to completion, said Carpenter, 67, who has served on the council for 25 years.

“To finish it will require a council that continues to reach decisions decisively and with a minimum of divisiveness,” he said.

Carpenter’s announcement came the same day that opponents of the RV park plan launched an aggressive new campaign to block it.

Buoyed by reports that California Coastal Commission analysts are preparing to recommend that permits for the project be denied, a coalition of opponents has scheduled a news conference for today to outline its objections.

City officials said Port Hueneme needs the RV resort, which generates $400,000 in annual revenues, to help pay for city services. But critics counter that the city has more than $21 million in reserve.

Opponents also are expected to talk about the effect of the proposed park on nearby endangered shorebirds and how it would bring increased air pollution, traffic and noise to the area.

A letter recently sent to the Coastal Commission by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service apparently supports their argument.

The service’s Ventura office reversed an earlier opinion that the RV resort would cause no harm to the endangered California least tern, which nests at nearby Ormond Beach.

If the city developed the site, it might be criminally liable for harming the habitat of an endangered species, Steven M. Chambers, supervisor of the Ventura office, said in the July 28 letter.

A second City Council seat is open in November’s election because Councilman Dean Green is retiring. Besides Carpenter, eight other people have taken out nomination papers for the two seats.