CAMARILLO : Mall Environmental Report Released

A draft environmental impact report on the proposed Koll-Leonard factory outlet mall in Camarillo was released Monday as city officials continue to appeal a Superior Court judgment that stopped the development earlier this year.

City officials said they opted to have the draft EIR prepared while they continue to battle the judgment issued this summer by Ventura Superior Court Judge Melinda Johnson, which was prompted by a lawsuit filed by Oxnard developer Stephen Maulhardt.

Maulhardt filed the suit against the city late last year, charging that a development deal amounted to a gift of public funds and that its environmental review of the site, located immediately south of the Ventura Freeway between Las Posas Road and Carmen Drive, was inadequate.

Maulhardt said Monday that he had not yet obtained a copy of the environmental report and declined to comment.

But according to Robert Burrow, the city’s senior planner, the draft document discusses at length the same areas of concern highlighted by the city’s briefer environmental assessment of the project conducted in 1992. Final approval for the 21 1/2-acre project was granted by the City Council in January.

Burrow said the draft EIR is available for public viewing at City Hall, 601 Carmen Drive, and selected locations throughout the city. Public comments on the document can be made until Jan. 20. The city’s planning commission is tentatively scheduled to consider the EIR at its Feb. 1 meeting.

For more information, call the city’s planning department at (805) 388-5360.