CAMARILLO : Agreement for CSU Campus Approved

The Camarillo City Council has approved an agreement with California State University officials for a proposed university campus west of the city, but with a catch.

The council voted unanimously Wednesday to sign off on a document spelling out how Camarillo, Ventura County and Oxnard will work with university officials to widen roads and lay water and sewer lines for the proposed campus west of Camarillo and north of the Ventura Freeway.

The agreement “committed us philosophically to working out the issues that need to be solved by the county, Oxnard and Camarillo to get a university built,” Camarillo City Councilman David Smith said Thursday.

However, although the county Board of Supervisors and Oxnard City Council earlier this week approved the agreement without adding anything to it, the Camarillo council voted to include a letter stating the city’s intention not to expand its sewer treatment plant to accommodate the school.

The proposed campus site is on 260 acres of farmland at Central and Santa Clara avenues, between Oxnard and Camarillo.

“The city did not want to be in a position to expand our sewer facility at our own expense,” Smith said.

Camarillo’s decision on the university agreement came at the same meeting where council members discussed how to pay for a recently approved $15-million expansion at the local sanitary district’s sewage treatment plant.

After some disagreement, council members approved raising customers’ rates by about 8% per month.

Oxnard city officials said recently that their city just completed a $50-million expansion of their sewage treatment facilities and could accommodate the university campus’ needs.