FILLMORE : City Agrees to Fund Auto Center Study

The Fillmore City Council has voted to spend up to $23,000 to find out if an auto center should be built west of the city. The Auto Center Group, a Sacramento firm, will conduct the study, which city officials said should be complete by the end of the year.

The auto center would replace about 12 acres of citrus orchard near E Street on California 126. Fillmore’s three local auto dealers have shown interest in moving to the center if the study indicates that the project could be successful, said Fillmore City Manager Roy Payne.

Councilwoman Linda Brewster, who cast the lone vote against approving the expense, said the study was a “pay-as-you-go” process. “If we decide the auto mall won’t work, we can stop before the next phase of the study, and we won’t have to pay the full amount.”

Pat Kincade, a sales manager at the Kirby Oldsmobile, Jeep, Eagle and Suzuki dealership in the Ventura Auto Center on Johnson Drive, agreed with Brewster. “These malls are expensive to build, and there’s a high overhead going in,” Kincade said. “It’s hardly a boom market right now, and dealers going into a new center may find they can’t be competitive.”

A former tenant of the Ventura Auto Center who has relocated in the newer Oxnard center on Ventura Boulevard, was more optimistic. “I think the idea has a lot of possibilities,” said Steve Cavanagh, general manager of Vreeland Cadillac, Pontiac and Subaru. “With Highway 126 going to four lanes, and Santa Clarita expanding, it could work. It depends on building costs.”