CAMARILLO : The Sammis Co. to Pay for School

The Sammis Co., which wants to develop 250 acres of farmland off Pleasant Valley Road in Camarillo, has agreed to find a way to pay for a new elementary school as part of the plan, school officials say.

Russell Goodman, a Sammis vice president, sent a memo to that effect to the Pleasant Valley School District, Associate Supt. Howard Hamilton said.

Hamilton said Goodman has also made a verbal commitment to pay for the school. Goodman was unavailable for comment. The district’s Board of Trustees recently voted to start year-round schooling next year to deal with classroom crowding that is projected to reach crisis proportions by 1993.

Sammis agreed to fund the school in return for the city’s rezoning of its property. In its initial application, Sammis asked the city to change the zoning from agricultural and industrial to commercial.

The school agreement was a recommendation by a 19-member citizens committee, which was established by Sammis to come up with an alternative to a factory outlet mall for the 87 acres that Sammis owns.

“This was one of the concerns a lot of the people had, so we felt that the issue had to be addressed, because it’s a problem everywhere,” committee spokesman Jim Turner said.

The citizens committee plans to present its proposal for the 1,100-home development, which would include a lake, parks, a small commercial area and other recreation and community facilities, to the City Council on June 24.

Although Sammis owns only 87 of the 250 acres, the committee wanted the developer to hire the San Francisco-based architectural firm Calthorpe Associates to plan for the whole area.