CAMARILLO : Council Votes to Aid Builder With Rebate

The Camarillo City Council voted Wednesday to sacrifice some future sales tax revenue to help a developer pay for the construction of a factory outlet mall in the city.

In a 3-0 vote, the council agreed to rebate to The Koll Co. either 50% of the sales tax generated by the mall or the developer’s annual assessment that pays for the cost of installing water and sewer connections to the Koll property.

Council members Ken Gose and Michael Morgan were absent.

The Los Angeles-based developer is now paying an annual assessment of $466,000, which will increase to $603,500 next year, City Manager J. William Little said. The mall is expected to generate $700,000 to $1 million in annual sales tax revenues once it is completed.

Little recommended approval of the Koll request, saying that he believed that the agreement would ensure the city of at least some sales tax revenues.

Without the deal, he said, the project may not be built and the city could lose those revenues to the city of Oxnard, where another developer has proposed building a similar mall.

Little said that with state funding being cut at every turn, the city “needs to become as financially independent as we can.”

Mayor Stanley J. Daily said the mall should stop the “bleeding of sales tax dollars” into surrounding communities.