Neighbors Divided Over Proposal to Close Residential Street to Traffic : Safety: Some living in Ventura Keys say cars travel too fast on Beachmont. Others say the problem is being exaggerated.

By TRACY WILSON

Oct. 31, 1995 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

VENTURA — A divisive audience of nearly 75 residents crowded City Council chambers Monday night to argue the merits of closing a residential street in the Ventura Keys that some homeowners say carries dangerous levels of traffic.

Beachmont Street residents want the city to create a cul-de-sac to deter cars from racing down their street en route to the Ventura Harbor.

But those living in the nearby Marina Mobile Home Park on Anchors Way, which is the southern continuation of Beachmont, and business owners in the Ventura Harbor say that homeowners along Beachmont are exaggerating the traffic problem. They asked the council to keep the road open.

The debate has touched off a nasty feud between Beachmont homeowners and mobile home park residents. The battle spilled over during Monday’s council meeting.

“I’ve seen three cars taken out. I’ve seen two walls taken out. And I’ve seen a truck--a four-wheel drive--up on my lawn. Luckily, it didn’t hit the house,” said Betty Jean Dye, a Beachmont resident for 27 years. “On our street you’re likely to see anything. Let’s close the darn thing.”

Speaking on behalf of the mobile home park homeowners association, resident Anne Wormwood urged the council not to close the thoroughfare because it would negatively affect hundreds of residents and businesses in the harbor area.

“It’s not just about their neighborhood, it’s about ours as well,” Wormwood said.

A residential street lined with tall palm trees and well-kept homes, Beachmont connects the marina to East Harbor Boulevard along the southern end of the Ventura Keys.

Beachmont shoots straight through the keys to the marina’s north end and meets the water at the Arundell Barranca bridge, which is where residents want the street closed.

Beachmont is a popular route for both mobile home park residents and businesses in the harbor.

A traffic circulation study conducted by the city in June, 1994, showed that 1,340 vehicles use the Arundell Barranca bridge each day and nearly 2,000 cross the area where Beachmont intersects Seashell Avenue.

Residents of the mobile home park conducted their own study recently, and contend that fewer than 1,000 vehicles cross the bridge daily.

At their regular meeting, council members were asked to consider three options:

* Closing Beachmont at the Arundell Barranca and installing semi-permanent barriers that could be removed to provide emergency access.

* Making traffic on the bridge one-way only.

* Leaving the street unchanged.

The proposals were debated late into the night as about 40 residents spoke out during a lengthy public hearing, trying to sway council members’ votes one way or another.

At the start of the hearing Monday night, Deputy Mayor Gary Tuttle said the city has received as much mail on the issue as it has on any other in the last six years. And council members said a decision would be a tough one.

“I think that it is going to probably be a compromise effort,” Councilman Jim Monahan said during a break in the meeting. “We’re trying to find something that works for everybody.”