Hearings Begin on Disputed Mall Plan : Camarillo: Opponents fear that the factory outlet center will lead to increased traffic and air pollution.

The Camarillo Planning Commission, with hundreds of rambunctious, catcalling opponents spilling out of the hearing room, began public hearings Tuesday on a factory outlet center proposed for an 86.5-acre tract of farmland.

Many of the elderly neighbors of the proposed east Camarillo project and other opponents groaned and made other remarks as city planners and officials of Sammis Co. described the center’s expected financial and environmental impacts.

Most of the detractors fear that the loss of agricultural land to make way for the center would lead to an increase in traffic congestion, air pollution and a general decline in the quality of life.

“We have drawn a line--not in the proverbial sand--but in the dark, rich soil of Camarillo,” said Bill Supri, president of the Camarillo Springs Homeowners Assn.

Before the hearing began, about 300 opponents gathered outside City Hall to noisily voice their disapproval of the project, which would attract up to 40,000 motorists a day passing by on the Ventura Freeway.

The Irvine-based Sammis Co. has proposed an outlet center targeted for “serious shoppers” on farmland south of the Ventura Freeway and east of Pleasant Valley Road.

Before construction can begin, Sammis must persuade city officials to change the city’s General Plan to allow retail shops on land reserved for agriculture. Sammis is proposing to build a 857,000-square-foot retail center with as many as 100 shops and a 150-room hotel. The nationwide development company has also proposed two smaller-scale alternatives for the site.

With green helium-filled balloons, each weighted down by a celery stalk, the protesters waved signs, shouted to passing motorists and chanted slogans, including “Stop the mall, stop the mall, we don’t need smog at all.”

Bill Johnson of Camarillo criticized the city for failing to renovate the existing Ventura Boulevard shopping district before considering new development. “We have a lot of commercial space that is not filled up,” Johnson said. “Prime agricultural land is a limited resource. When it is gone, there is no more of it.”

As the public hearing began, city planners and planning consultants went step-by-step through the three-volume environmental impact report, detailing ways to soften the anticipated environmental effects of the massive project originally proposed two years ago.

Dwayne Mears, an author of the environmental study, conceded that the project would be built on prime farmland and that there is no available way to replace the agricultural land.

Since 1986, he said, loss of agricultural land on the Oxnard plain has “accelerated,” with 1,500 acres a year now converted to development.

But Matthew A. Boden, the city’s director of planning and community development, has defended the conversion of the 86.5-acre parcel from agricultural use, saying that Camarillo can best defend its surrounding greenbelt by allowing development to proceed within the city limits.

Furthermore, he has said the outlet center would bring needed sales tax revenue to the city. An economic study prepared for the city by Economics Research Associates of Los Angeles and partially funded by Sammis, determined that shoppers spent $92 million outside of Camarillo, part of which could be captured by this mall.

In his presentation, Sammis President Russell Goodman said his firm is “intensely committed” to the factory outlet project. He indicated that his company has joined with another large outfit that has the necessary financial backing.

Sammis officials said the 100-shop center would generate up to $2.3 million in tax revenues for the city.

They have denied that the center would lead to “mall wars” with two other retail centers proposed within the Camarillo city limits. He pointed out that a factory outlet center in Vacaville, near Sacramento, had helped boost sagging sales at other stores in the city.

City planning officials expect to continue the hearing next Tuesday.