Wetlands Safe in Revised Plan for Ormond Beach : Development: Environmentalists and council members are impressed with the scaled-down proposal. But proponents of low-income housing are concerned.

Architects unveiled a dramatically reduced plan for development at Oxnard’s Ormond Beach on Tuesday that satisfied City Council members and disarmed environmental activists but worried proponents of low-cost housing.

The city’s scaled-down development proposal for the 1,200-acre area includes high-rise beachfront condominiums, an aqua-farming parcel, a pier, marina and a theme park.

But the new plan, requested by the City Council last year, would preserve--possibly even expand--a fragile wetlands area where several endangered species are flourishing, pleasing environmentalists.

“This is a wonderful plan,” said Jean Harris of the Ormond Beach Observers, an environmental watchdog group. “There are a lot of interesting ideas here.”

The new proposal, which would incorporate the wetlands by building a 27-hole golf course around them, even contains plans to restore once-pristine sections of the natural lagoon. It may also include a boardwalk where residents and scientists could examine the area’s wildlife.

Two consultants helped Oxnard officials draw up their proposal, which also includes a school, park and hotel. Architect Norman Pfieffer of Hardy Holzman Pfieffer Associates, one of the two consulting firms, presented the project to the City Council on Tuesday.

“What we’re really talking about is a small community or village,” Pfieffer said. “What this does is present a land use like the golf course . . . so that the wetlands can be protected as much as possible.”

The plan does not state how much housing would be built, but city officials are expected to allow 3,000 to 4,000 residences.

Oxnard leaders initially had grandiose ideas for Ormond Beach: a 7,000-seat amphitheater, an aquarium and even a 700-acre amusement park similar to Disneyland.

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But the Baldwin Co., a developer that owns a portion of the 1,200-acre plot, had a different idea early on: 10,000 residences.

Both have amended their plans in the past two years, with Baldwin seeking fewer residences and the city deciding on a less-extravagant entertainment complex.

The latest proposal comes after the Oxnard City Council asked city staff members last year to devise a proposal for the beach that contained a major tourist draw and took into account the area’s fragile wetlands, Oxnard Community Development Director Richard Maggio said.

“I think that while this is not what I consider an ideal plan, it is a large step forward,” Councilman Michael Plisky said. “This sort of got out of control and became a large housing project, but now it looks like it is back on track.”

Plisky said Oxnard lacks recreational projects and high-priced estates, and Ormond Beach is the perfect place in which to build them, because of its coastal access.

But Eileen McCarthy of California Rural Legal Assistance, a legal advocacy group, told the council that affordable housing for Oxnard’s poor is what the city truly needs.

“It’s one of the largest, if not the largest, housing developments in Oxnard in the next 20 years, and there is no specific provision for affordable housing in this plan,” she said.

McCarthy said the plan is not in compliance with state affordable housing mandates, though it meets the standards of Oxnard’s general plan.

A lawsuit by California Rural Legal Assistance and Channel Counties Legal Services Assn., which contends that the city’s general plan does not include enough low-cost housing, is now in negotiations.

The Baldwin Co. also unveiled a revised plan that includes 5,398 residences, along with a hotel, an 18-hole golf course and a shopping center. Representatives said they had not seen Oxnard’s new plan and were taken aback.

“We’re a little confused, frankly, about the whole process,” said Louis Malone, president of the Baldwin Co.’s Los Angeles and Ventura County division, speaking before the council Tuesday.

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Councilman Tom Holden said he understands Malone’s worries, but the City Council is more concerned with the environment than the Baldwin project.

“Malone is worried about the financial viability of the project,” Holden said. “We have the responsibility of what is going to be the best for this community. . . . We’re the ones who are going to have to live with it.”

Projects to develop Ormond Beach have been kicking around Oxnard City Hall since 1987, when the Baldwin Co. proposed building thousands of residences in the area. From the beginning, environmentalists have complained bitterly that the beach’s wetlands--where the California least tern and several other endangered species live--would be wiped out.

An environmental impact report on development at Ormond Beach is under way and should be completed early next year. The City Council will then review the report--which analyzes several proposals, including one that allows no development--and choose a final plan for the area, Maggio said.

Plisky said the option to leave Ormond Beach the way it is should not be ruled out.

“If we can’t do it right,” he said, “we shouldn’t do it at all.”