Chamber Leader Sues Camarillo Over Outlet Mall

The skirmish between Oxnard and Camarillo over building the county’s first factory-outlet mall has escalated into a battle in the courts.

The president of the Oxnard Chamber of Commerce has sued Camarillo on allegations that city officials have violated state procedures in promising a developer a rebate on sales taxes.

The suit, filed Tuesday in Ventura County Superior Court, contends that Camarillo was required under state law to hold an announced public hearing before approving a 50% sales tax rebate awarded to a developer at an Oct. 7 council meeting.

The suit also says that the city failed to complete an environmental review of the factory-outlet mall’s impact on traffic and air quality as dictated by the California Environmental Quality Act.

Camarillo City Manager Bill Little dismissed the lawsuit as groundless and characterized it as an attempt by outsiders “to delay, stop or detour the project itself.”

“It’s an attempt by outside economic forces to dictate the financial future of this community,” Little said. He vowed that the suit would not chill the city’s enthusiasm for the project.

In his petition, Oxnard chamber President Stephen J. Maulhardt, who lives in an unincorporated area next to Camarillo, asked the court to order the city to set aside the agreement between the city and the factory-outlet developer, the Koll-Leonard Partnership.

The suit comes at a time when the two cities have been racing to be the first to approve a factory-outlet mall. Officials from both cities said conventional business wisdom is that the county cannot support two factory outlets.

The Camarillo outlet would host 60 to 80 stores, employ 250 people and give the city $700,000 to $1 million in sales taxes annually.

The Oxnard outlet would house 45 stores and generate 325 new jobs, and would put an estimated $800,000 to $1 million in the city’s coffers. The Carl M. Buck Building Co. of Los Angeles is the developer on the proposed project.

In the race, the Oxnard outlet mall has shot out front with approval from the city’s Planning Commission, and the completion of an environmental report and design review. In Camarillo, the Koll-Leonard Partnership filed a development application last Wednesday with the city’s planning department. The city has since initiated an environmental review.

Maulhardt said he was not acting on behalf of the Oxnard City Council or the Oxnard business community. Instead, he said, he owns an industrial-zoned lot about a mile from the proposed outlet mall in Oxnard. He said he cannot compete with other lots granted special treatment.

“I have no authority to speak for the chamber. If they want to build both of them, it is fine,” Maulhardt said. “This is personal. The issue is a financial arrangement that has a negative impact on me.”

Rebutting all charges, Little said the city had not started an environmental review at the time of the rebate decision because the developer had yet to give the project to the city planners. Little said that before promising the developer a sales tax rebate, the city held a public hearing on Oct. 7 that was properly announced to the public.

But Maulhardt’s lawsuit alleges that city officials failed to notify adjacent property owners about the public hearing. Camarillo resident Richard L. Lundberg, who joined Maulhardt in the suit, said the council’s decision “was extremely hasty.”

The suit alleges that the sales tax rebate is “a sweetheart giveaway” that is “unprecedented, excessive and unnecessary.”

Little acknowledged that this is the first time that the city has promised such a rebate. But he stressed that the city officials “think it is an appropriate use of public funds.”

“This contract just offsets the extra costs for sewer and water improvements. It just levels the playing field,” Little said. He suggested that the lawsuit is designed to scare off investors in the mall.

Vice Mayor Charlotte Craven said the deal is “a two-way street.”

Oxnard business leaders and City Council members said they had no knowledge of Maulhardt’s suit and did not necessarily back his efforts.

George Scarvelis, Oxnard chamber executive director, said that although “everyone is rooting for the Oxnard proposal to win, I’m not sure they would support what Mr. Maulhardt is doing.”