The County of Ventura is pleased to announce that it has selected a distinguished team of urban planning consultants to lead a public visioning process for the future of Channel Islands Harbor, which is owned and operated by the County of Ventura.

Senior Principal at Sargent Town Planning, David Sargent, said his team is honored and excited to have been selected by the County of Ventura to lead this visioning process.

Sargent said that planning for the visioning is already underway, and that his team is working closely with a diverse steering committee tasked with overseeing the process. The steering committee is comprised of representatives from the County of Ventura, City of Oxnard, the Harbor business community and residential representatives.

“In recent years a number of new development proposals in the Harbor have encountered challenges due to community concerns,” Sargent said. “We are working closely with the steering committee to refine and conduct an open and transparent process to develop a long-term vision for the Harbor, a vision supported by the community, the County of Ventura, the City of Oxnard, and by economic realities.

“To expand our firm’s strong credentials in community engagement and in preparing community-based vision plans, strategic plans, and implementation documents, we assembled a team for this effort that includes real estate economists, coastal policy experts, and public engagement specialists with strong local, statewide and national reputations. We are confident that our team will successfully engage the community in creating a vision for the Harbor that will attract well-qualified developers, high-quality projects, and visitors of all types.A clear and shared vision for the future of the Harbor will support policy makers in making well-informed decisions, and will provide the community with confidence when future development projects are presented for approval.”

“We applaud the Harbor Department for opening and expanding its planning and development process to include this open, public, up-front visioning process for the Harbor,” Sargent said.  “All great places and great cities were created starting with a clear vision of the future place and intended outcomes for its people, and a clear plan crafted to ensure that each new development project and each new public improvement contribute to the community’s vision for a unique and resilient place of long-term value.  It is critically important that the Harbor – a unique and rare public asset – provide strong, growing and enduring value to the local coastal community, to the City of Oxnard and neighboring cities, to investors and businesses, and to the County of Ventura, which is both a governing agency and the land owner of the Harbor.”

Ventura County Harbor Department Director Mark Sandoval said that Sargent Town Planning was selected because of its extensive work in facilitating and preparing successful community plans locally, throughout California and in other states. Over the past 25 years the firm has led or made major contributions to long term vision plans and implementing documents for Downtown Oxnard, Downtown Ventura, Riverpark in Oxnard, Ventura Harbor, Hercules Waterfront District in the Bay Area, and many other places in various stages of implementation.

“Sargent Town Planning is the perfect team to help assist all concerned stakeholders at the Harbor,” Director Sandoval said. “Their track record of facilitating these types of processes is second to none.”

Residents interested in participating in upcoming Channel Islands Harbor Visioning meetings or monitoring visioning progress will be able to stay up-to-date by visiting the Harbor’s website, www.channelislandsharbor.org. The Harbor Department will host a visioning page on its website, which will be monitored and regularly updated by the Sargent Town Planning team. The webpage should be live early next week.

Editor’s Note: this story was published on August 21, 2020.