Factory Outlet Mall Plan Encounters Opposition : Camarillo: Foes fear urbanization. Developer says the city would receive $2.3 million annually in sales tax.

Plans to build a giant factory-outlet shopping center with up to 100 stores and a 200-room hotel on farmland in Camarillo have drawn a groundswell of opposition from residents concerned that the project will clog the area’s narrow roadways and continue the urbanization of Ventura County.

About 150 people, many of them retirees, picketed the city Planning Commission recently to protest the 857,000-square-foot project, planned for 87 acres along the Ventura Freeway at Pleasant Valley Road.

As they marched in front of City Hall they sang their own song of protest: “Stop the mall, stop the mall, we don’t need the smog at all. We don’t need the congestion, we don’t need the crime. Stop the mall, and we’ll all be fine.”

“Camarillo is a little bit of paradise after leaving the San Fernando Valley and Los Angeles,” protester Herb Warneke said. “To cover it up with concrete is just horrible.”

A Planning Commission hearing on the $83-million project, described by officials as the largest retail proposal in the city’s history and the most controversial, has been delayed until Oct. 1 because of questions raised by opponents. The project is subject to City Council approval.

The developer, Sammis Co. of Irvine, says the project would bring the city $2.3 million a year in sales tax revenue. A city study shows that the project is needed because most Camarillo residents now shop elsewhere, said Jeff Birdwell, a Sammis vice president.

“Many communities see this type of center as beneficial,” he said.

City officials say they won’t take a stand until a public hearing is held on the project.

“Otherwise, there is no point in having a public hearing,” Camarillo Mayor David Smith said.

The concerns and issues are clear, the mayor said. The project would turn farmland into a high-volume shopping center, adding traffic and air pollution, he said. “People see it as a decision about the kind of city Camarillo will be in the future.”

About 200 letters of protest have reached City Hall, he said.

Except for a housing tract that borders one side, the project is surrounded by agricultural land.

The project’s centerpiece would be a cluster of factory-outlet stores, stocked with brand-name discounted goods. In addition to the hotel, the plan calls for movie theaters, a skating rink or miniature golf course, restaurants and a day-care center.

The factory outlet concept started on the East Coast, and about 200 have sprung up nationwide, Birdwell said. The idea is just catching on in California, where about 10 are open, he said.

The mall in Camarillo would be operated by The Willey Creek Co., which recently opened a similar center in Vacaville, west of Sacramento. There, tourists pull off Interstate 80 and pour out of tour buses for a few hours of shopping, according to Sammis officials.

It’s a vision that has Warneke and other Camarillo residents worried. The project is expected to lure up to 40,000 vehicles a day off the Ventura Freeway, the developers believe. The freeway already carries about 100,000 vehicles daily through Camarillo, city engineers say.

Camarillo residents, especially those who live in the nearby Woodside Greens tract, say noisy traffic will foul the air. The loss of farmland is an even greater concern, Chris DeSales of Woodside Greens said.

“A lot of people moved out of Los Angeles and Orange County because they value the open feel of this community,” he said.

The mall site was purchased by Sammis six years ago but is still planted in vegetables. Although many of the residents concede that development there is inevitable, they insist that Sammis’ project is too large.

“We don’t want this to be a tourist center,” said Ann Levey, a resident of Leisure Village, a retirement community a mile away.

Levey also fears that the project will deflate property values and hurt merchants already in the city. There are already many vacant stores in Camarillo shopping centers, she said. With the county’s largest mall only seven miles away in Thousand Oaks, she questioned whether the new mall is needed.

While some Camarillo merchants oppose the project, a city Chamber of Commerce spokeswoman said the business group has not taken a stand. The chamber is polling its membership and studying business vacancy rates in the city, Executive Director Evie Bystrom-Herrera said.

In Vacaville, merchants raised similar concerns three years ago. But the mall helped boost the city’s sales tax by 63% in its first year, said Michael Palombo, city economic development manager. There are no vacancies in mall stores, he said. About 80% of the sales come from out-of-towners. And local merchants haven’t suffered, he said.

“These people shop for recreation,” he said. “They tend to come, stay longer and buy more.”

But in Camarillo, city officials say the new revenue is not as important as in some financially strapped cities.

“We’re managing to keep our heads above water,” Planning Commissioner Les Meredith said. Traffic jams and air pollution are more important considerations, he said.

Sammis officials say, however, that the project will actually improve the flow of traffic because it will widen Pleasant Valley Road from two to six lanes.

But some road improvements already are in the works without the project, said Matthew Boden, city planning director. Caltrans will soon widen the bridge over the freeway at Pleasant Valley Road to six lanes, he said.

Camarillo Controversy Here is a look at the proposed 87-acre shopping center that developers say will bring $2.3 million a year in sales tax to Camarillo, but opponents insist will clog the area’s narrow roadways and continue the urbanization of Ventura County.