In the fading neighborhoods that make up the heart of Oxnard, residents have long clamored for an infusion of life--a showering of city money to modernize aging communities and restore their former charm.

Oxnard's response had always been that it did not have money to fix eroding roads and sidewalks, much less fund the more costly projects necessary to renovate the city's old neighborhoods.

But in 1993, Oxnard officials began work on an ambitious plan to revitalize about one-third of the city's business districts and residential neighborhoods by forming a sprawling redevelopment zone along Oxnard Boulevard and Saviers Road.

City officials envisioned that the redevelopment area would net hundreds of millions in tax increment dollars over 40 years, and the money would be used to resuscitate Oxnard's withering core.

Yet as the plan enters its final study phase, city leaders concede that it has encountered an increasingly burdensome obstacle: Most people in the area are strongly opposed to any form of redevelopment.

Of the 15 neighborhoods in the proposed area, only four have voted to embrace redevelopment. Because the Oxnard City Council pledged not to include any neighborhood in the zone that does not wish to take part, it must decide in coming months if the plan can be salvaged.

"We have a problem," Mayor Manuel Lopez said. "I think the business people want it, but you have to do what is in the best interest of the city. You cannot force this on people."

Oxnard has already established four redevelopment areas: the crime-plagued Southwinds neighborhood, Ormond Beach, downtown as well as the area immediately surrounding downtown. An independent auditing firm last year estimated the city's long-term redevelopment debt, from bonds and other redevelopment costs, at $25.7 million.

Critics of the most recent version of the proposed redevelopment zone say it would benefit developers--especially real estate magnate Martin V. (Bud) Smith and his Wagon Wheel complex--more than the residents of Oxnard.

Smith has unveiled plans to turn the Wagon Wheel area--centered around a bowling alley and motel at the Ventura Freeway and Pacific Coast Highway--into a massive office, residential and entertainment complex. Some residents say they believe that the redevelopment plan was created to help the developer pay his street, sewer and landscaping costs.