Merchants, City Work on Surviving Construction

VENTURA — They survived seven months of sidewalk construction--but just barely.

And soon downtown will be full of caravans of cement trucks, jackhammers and the din of construction again, as workers begin building a five-story downtown parking garage and a 10-screen theater.

In an effort to avoid a repeat of the devastating effects of the downtown sidewalk reconstruction almost two years ago, city officials and downtown merchants have cobbled together an ambitious plan to help businesses make it through the next year of construction.

The $70,000 plan, approved Monday night by the City Council, attempts to make the construction a public spectacle to come down and see, rather than a troublesome inconvenience to be avoided.

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“It is very important that we learn some lessons from last time,” Tim O’Neil, president of the Downtown Ventura Assn., told the council. “When we redid the sidewalks at California and Main, most businesses suffered 25% to 35% cuts in business.”

In a revised agreement with the developer, Victor K. Georgino, the council also agreed to spend another $1.8 million on the parking structure, to be built near the corner of California and Santa Clara streets.

The extra money, bringing the project’s total to $4.8 million, would ensure that the building fits into the downtown architectural style. The theater at Main and Chestnut streets will cost the city another $6.5 million.

Councilman Steve Bennett threw his support behind merchants’ efforts and made a pitch to the public to brave the imminent parking shortage and spend their shopping dollars downtown.

“Everyone needs to make an effort to come downtown and shop,” Bennett said. “If everyone wants these businesses to be here when we finish, we have to support them.”

The result of a series of meetings between a task force of downtown merchants and city officials, the plan includes a public newsletter, already being published; a hotline with daily updates on project information; and traveling exhibits of the parking structure and theater models--so the public can see what’s coming.

The plan also includes interim parking measures to ease the space crunch, such as better signs for public parking lots and a shuttle to carry shoppers from outlying public lots.

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Updated downtown parking maps have been drawn up and will be distributed with the Downtown Ventura Assn. newsletter twice during construction. The newsletters and other information will be available in different shops and at the Saturday farmers’ market, the Thursday night barbecue and farmers’ market, and the Visitors and Convention Bureau office.

Finally, the city is setting up a temporary parking permit program during the construction period for those who work downtown.

City officials are looking at this as a pilot program that may be continued after construction is completed.

All city lots will be designated for three-hour parking. Shop owners and their employees will be given special stickers so they can park in the designated lots all day without being ticketed.

Free parking at the beachfront parking structure near the Holiday Inn will also be open to downtown merchants and their employees.

“Come down during this part of the reconstruction,” O’Neil urged. “We invite the citizens to be part of the reconstruction, to share in it.”

Construction on the parking structure should begin June 2, according to project manager Bill Hatcher.

Demolition of the buildings on the 500 block of Main Street--from the pink County Stationer’s Store to the old beige Sav-Mor building--is scheduled to begin in July, with construction on the theater starting in August.

The parking structure should swing open its wooden arm to the first cars by next March, and the theater is set to open in June 1998, Hatcher said.