Ventura County oversight board approves four ROPS items, presses Ventura on Site 7 surplus process

VENTURA COUNTY, Calif. — The Ventura County Consolidated Oversight Board on Jan. 28 approved proposed Recognized Obligation Payment Schedules (ROPS) for the cities of Ventura, Moorpark, Oxnard and Fillmore, each by a 6-0 vote, and requested follow-up material from the City of Ventura on a downtown parking-lot property known as Site 7.

Heather Bowling, speaking for the City of Ventura, told the board the two successor-agency parcels that make up Site 7 — located between California and Chestnut north of Main Street — were appraised recently at a combined $4,740,000. She said the city submitted roughly $1.2 million in enforceable obligations for the site and an administrative total of $61,792 for the ROPS. "The combined valuation of that whole parking lot is appraised at $4,740,000," Bowling said. She added there is currently no lease on the property and that it is tax-exempt as government land.

Board members pressed the city for more detail on near-term steps. Bowling said the city plans to ask its council to declare the property surplus in a presentation tentatively scheduled for April and then proceed through the Surplus Land Act process, which requires…