The Ormond Beach Specific Plan is actually two separate development proposals – the South Ormond Beach Specific Plan (approximately 800-acres, located South of Hueneme Road), which would consist of commercial and light industrial development, and the South Shore Specific Plan (approximately 300 acres, located North of Hueneme Road), with would include residential development of up to 1200 units.
Both developments would mark a dramatic departure from the current agricultural land uses for which the area is zoned.
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Project area, South of Hueneme Road.
Site
of South Ormond Beach Specific Plan. Photo by Linda Krop. |
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Project area; North of Hueneme Road. Site
of South Shore Specific Plan. Photo by Linda Krop. |
If approved, the projects would further degrade the wetlands and drastically interfere with efforts to restore and expand the wetland area. One issue of great concern is the risk of inundation of the wetlands and the Specific Plan area from coastal flooding and sea level rise. In March 2009, the Pacific Institute, a nonpartisan research institute, releasedThe Impacts of Sea-Level
Rise on the California Coast, an analysis prepared for three California state agencies.
As this map shows, sea level rise is a significant threat for the Ormond Beach area. If the Specific Plan area is developed, that development will limit the ability of the wetlands to migrate inland in response to sea level rise, resulting in a loss of wetlands and habitat for sensitive, threatened and endangered species. Most of the Ormond Beach Specific Plan area itself could be inundated at 1.4 meters sea level rise, and it is within a 100-year coastal base flood zone.
Read EDC’s comments on this issue and many others here:
You can get more information about the Ormond Beach Specific Plan and try to keep an eye on the City of Oxnard’s environmental review proceedings here. |
