Planners Reject Mall on Camarillo Farmland : Development: Commissioners say there are better locations for the 927,700-square-foot center. Sammis will go to the City Council.

The Sammis Co.’s factory outlet mall should not be built on 86 acres of Camarillo farmland, the Planning Commission ruled unanimously Tuesday.

Commissioners told the Irvine-based development firm that there are better locations in Camarillo to build the 927,700-square-foot center that would preserve the city’s rural atmosphere.

Commissioner Les Meredith emphasized the effect the project would have on the remaining agricultural land to the east. “While that land will eventually be developed, I don’t think this is the time,” he said.

Commissioner William Q. Liebmann said the project was a good development planned for the wrong place.

“As long as we have areas already planned and appropriate for retail development, we should use those sites,” he said. He also questioned whether the city needs this development to prevent future budget shortfalls.

Sammis Co. regional President Russ Goodman will take his case to the City Council, which has scheduled a hearing on the issue Nov. 20 at 6 p.m.

Commissioner Ed Miller proposed that the project be built at an alternate site south of the Ventura Freeway at Central Avenue.

The commission’s vote capped five weeks of testimony and deliberations on Rancho Camarillo Plaza. After Sammis proposed the project two years ago, neighbors complained that the center would displace farmland and cause air pollution and traffic congestion.

Opponents formed the Ventura County League of Homeowners and found allies among many Camarillo residents who had fled Los Angeles County. The campaign included noisy demonstrations at City Hall and a petition drive that collected 7,600 signatures.

The size of the opposition surprised city officials and prompted Sammis to launch a public relations campaign that included full-page ads in area newspapers and the publication of its own “newspaper.”

Sammis purchased the property located south of the Ventura Freeway and east of Pleasant Valley Road from the Seventh-day Adventist Church in 1985. Later, the company proposed three versions of a mixed-use project that would include as its centerpiece a factory outlet mall.

Each alternative contained 273,000 square feet of factory outlet stores, 97,200 square feet of specialty stores, a 150-room hotel, a restaurant and a family recreation center on the 42 acres closest to the freeway.

Sammis officials preferred to build an additional 472,500 square feet of retail shops on the 44.5 acres that make up the parcel’s southern half. The full project would equal half of all existing retail space in Camarillo.

In the second alternative, the southern acres would be left in agricultural production. In the third option, the southern half would include 615,425 square feet of retail shops and research and development offices.

As part of any deal, Sammis agreed to build new on-ramps to the freeway and extend Adolfo Road and Ridgeview Street to Camarillo Springs, all to reduce congestion that would be created by the 40,000 motorists expected to visit the center each day.

The project was recommended by a 1990 study conducted for the city by Economics Research Associates, a Los Angeles consulting firm. The study’s authors advised the city that it was losing retail sales and sales tax revenues to surrounding cities.

Camarillo, the study showed, was last in per capita retail sales among the five largest cities in the county. By attracting shoppers from as far away as 50 miles, a factory outlet center could combat the city’s “tax leakage,” the consultants said.

The study estimated that the full Sammis project could generate as much as $2.3 million in annual sales tax revenues.

But opponents argued that the city had already approved one of two other proposed retail shopping centers and that the Sammis project was not needed.