OFFICIALS TOUT RURAL CHARMS OF COAST ROAD; TAKING THE SCENIC ROUTE.

Byline: Michael Coit Daily News Staff Writer

The scrubby brown Santa Monica Mountains and blue Pacific Ocean dominate a motorist's view passing Leo Carrillo State Beach and approaching Neptune's Net, a popular roadside restaurant on Pacific Coast Highway.

On the drive out of Malibu, a produce stand and sign urging motorists to ``Concentrate on a Safe Trip'' are the few other features marking the journey north across the border from Los Angeles County.

Here, tourism and civic boosters in Ventura County's coastal communities hope travelers will one day recognize they are entering a far different cut of California. Touting the region's enduring rural coastal charm, those leaders want to designate a 31.2-mile stretch of coast highway and local roads as the Coastal Scenic Drive.

``We don't want to be tied with L.A. It's a different world, and we would like it to stay that way,'' said Carol Lavender, executive director of the Oxnard & Harbors Tourism Bureau and one of the route's chief backers.

By erecting dozens of colorful signs with a common logo, supporters hope to lure tourists away from the Ventura Freeway and onto the slower stretches of roads and highway, from Main Street in Ventura to the southern county line.

Sights range from the San Buenaventura Mission, founded in 1782 in what is now downtown Ventura, to the display of military jets and missiles outside the gates of the Point Mugu Naval Air Warfare Center.

In between are the broad sands of three state beaches, two bustling boating harbors and the largest commercial port between Oakland and Los Angeles. There also are swaths of farmland where row crops, citrus and seemingly endless fields of strawberries are grown.

``It's a lot of unique little things that when you put them together make a nice draw,'' said Debbie Giles, the Ventura Visitors and Convention Bureau official on the Coastal Scenic Drive committee.

A road less traveled

The greatest land features are on the coast highway - including the great dune at Sycamore Canyon and Mugu Rock.

And Mugu Rock could give route backers hope in their quest to make the land a reason to slow down and take a look. The rock, a stunning landscape feature, was created when a notch was blasted through Point Mugu for the coast highway after a rugged road around the point proved unmanageable.

Lavender even compared the route's more rugged, serpentine section to famed 17-mile Drive in Carmel.

``It's comparable because you're following the ocean, whereas if you're strictly going on (the Ventura Freeway), you don't see this,'' she said. ``The whole thrust is to get people off the 101. It's a part of California that people don't normally see.''

Surfers ending a recent morning on the waves at County Line Beach said the scenic route likely would draw tourists familiar with the often-numbing drive between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, which is mostly inland from the coast.

``There's not a lot to slow things down, so I think it would be a good idea,'' said Jim Van Dyck, a La Canada Flintridge paving contractor. ``With a scenic route, more people would probably discover it.''

Van Dyck's surfing buddy said tourists would get a glimpse of California as it was - and still is.

``It hasn't changed in 30 years,'' said Dave Hill, a fertility lab manager from La Canada Flintridge who has surfed County Line Beach all those years. ``There's a few condos around, but that's it.''

Development, though, is what Steve Armstrong fears will result if more people are drawn to the county's coast.

``That would just follow. Doesn't it always?'' said Armstrong, a lift operator from Ventura taking a break during a recent bike ride on the Ventura state beach promenade. ``I think it's a negative. There's enough traffic already.''

Unique tourist draw

The fledgling Coastal Scenic Drive committee is beginning to deal with such issues after agreeing last week on the route and its name.

With representatives from the cities of Ventura, Oxnard and Port Hueneme and the county, the committee must gain consensus on signs, costs and the extent of any promotions. The first formal presentations to the city councils and the county Board of Supervisors is expected before the end of the year, committee members said.

What all sides agree on so far is that the route does not qualify for official Scenic Highway status, which is conferred by the state Department of Transportation. The program has such strict restrictions on residential and commercial development that the only county highway marked with the state's distinctive poppy-flower signs is a 23-mile section of Highway 33 through the Los Padres National Forest above Ojai.

``This is not a scenic highway,'' said Supervisor Frank Schillo, a committee member. ``What we have along that route is so exciting that we want to share it with the rest of the world. There are attractions that people just don't know are even there.

``People, hopefully, will stop in those cities and partake of the environment and spend some tax dollars.''

That was the goal three years ago when Port Hueneme city and chamber leaders began discussing a 16-mile scenic route to draw tourists.

The idea regained strength in August 1996, when the committee was formed and the route extended along the entire coastal region.

``We're going full blast,'' Lavender said. ``I'm hoping that we will be seeing signs put up in May. We would like to see it up before tourism starts next summer.''

An urban start

If established, the Coastal Scenic Drive will feature as many opportunities for shopping as sightseeing.

On the drive from the south, the first strip shopping centers appear on Hueneme Road after passing the Edison power plant at Ormond Beach, industrial parks and the last pockets of farmland.

Turning north on Ventura Road, there are apartment complexes, small homes with neat lawns and the omnipresent U.S. Naval Construction Battalion Center, then more shopping centers featuring either mission or nautical themes.

Continuing west on Channel Islands Boulevard, there are tract homes bordered by roof-high walls, fast-food restaurants, gas stations and the Seabee Golf Course. The massive Channel Islands Harbor complex of shops, restaurants and pleasure boats comes up before the route turns north on expansive Harbor Boulevard.

On the boulevard, a second Edison power plant, an oil field and Olivas Park Golf Course combine with views of dunes, farmland, the Santa Clara River estuary and wetlands. Then come Ventura Harbor, the expansive Ventura state beach and the historic pier.

The route turns up California Street, passing restaurants and nightclubs before heading west on Main Street. There are historic, four-story stone and stucco buildings on opposite corners, more restaurants along with thrift, antique and book shops, and then the historic mission.

By linking the disparate features of each city, the route provides a type of cultural tourism, said Giles, the Ventura tourism official.

``That's how we're trying to package a lot of things together,'' she said. ``All three of the cities have a lot to them.''

Tourists can discover all that without signs directing them along a scenic route that already includes several congested areas, said Armstrong, the Ventura resident concerned with increased development.

``Accessibility is a nice thing, but you want to gear it down,'' he said. ``When you get out of your car, you bring your car attitude.

``The people who know this area, they enjoy the way it is. Santa Monica is bad enough. Why bring it up here?''

CAPTION(S):

5 Photos, Map

PHOTO (1--color) Huge expanses of agricultural fields in Oxnard lie along the proposed Coastal Scenic Drive.

(2--color) Pacific Coast Highway winds past Mugu Rock, left, on the scenic route. It was created when a notch was blasted through Point Mugu.

(3--color) The Ventura Pier is being touted as a possible stopping point for motorists along the route.

(4--color) Missiles and jet fighter planes stand on display outside the naval base at Point Mugu.

(5) The proposed Coastal Scenic Drive runs past the fleet of private boats moored at Channel Islands Harbor. The route's supporters hope the harbor's complex of shops, restaurants and pleasure boats will draw visitors and generate revenue.

Evan Yee/Daily News

MAP: no caption (Proposed Coastal Scenic Drive)

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