Council to Vote on Cycling, Skating Ban

The Ventura City Council is scheduled to decide tonight whether to ban skateboarding, bicycling and in-line skating in the downtown business district.

If approved by the council, skating and cycling would be prohibited between Ash Street and Ventura Avenue, and from Poli Street to Harbor Boulevard. Violators would be ticketed. The infractions would cost around $25.

The Police Department proposed the regulation as a result of damage to public property, near-miss collisions, and repeated complaints from downtown merchants.

“We feel it is very important with the summer coming on and school getting out to get an ordinance in place,” said Tim O’Neil, president of the Downtown Ventura Assn., which voted last month for the restriction.

The city approved a similar ban last year for the California Street Plaza after skateboarders irreparably scratched and scraped the decorative steps of the $800,000 thoroughfare.

The problem has been concentrated at the mini-park at the corner of California and Santa Clara streets, where skateboarders have damaged public property and come dangerously close to running into pedestrians, police and business owners say.

City officials erected signs at the park last week that prohibit skating and cycling at the popular spot.

Downtown merchants have lobbied city officials to impose the ban throughout the downtown redevelopment corridor, even though they are aware that Ventura youths lack a place to spin their wheels. Plans to build a skateboarding park have been stalled for almost a year.

“We support a skateboard park and have been involved in moving that forward,” O’Neil said. “We plan to work with the community to get that on a fast track.”