Heading for the Hills

For generations of children growing up in this middle-class bedroom community, the hills looming north of town were a vast playground teeming with adventure.

Jack rabbits and other small game lured rookie hunters, kids built hide-outs and hikers marveled at the sweeping views of the Channel Islands and Las Posas Valley.

Before too long, however, speculators came to appreciate what locals had enjoyed for years, and the Spanish Hills Development Co. was hatched.

The partners bought up hundreds of acres and began plotting what they hoped would become one of the premier ZIP codes in Ventura County, an exclusive country club community sprawling across the hills above the Oxnard Plain.

The golf memberships at the country club would start at $35,000; the houses, at more than $1 million.

“When they first brought it before the City Council, we were very much impressed with what they wanted to do,” remembers former Councilman Mike Morgan, who as a boy hunted rabbits along what is now Spanish Hills. “When we saw what they had on their plans, we thought ‘Wow.’ ”

That was in the late 1980s, when the economy was booming and people had money to lend and to spend.

But by the early 1990s--when the roads were mapped and the home sites staked out--things had changed. The market for million-dollar homes on acre-sized hilltop lots had dried up. With barely a third of the 151 lots sold, much of Spanish Hills remained only a vision.

But the past year has brought a change in ownership and strategy. New developers are offering less expensive model homes and a set of condominiums near the golf course--and they are using an aggressive advertising campaign to draw buyers in.

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These days, the hillside high above the Ventura Freeway is buzzing with activity as construction crews erect custom houses, fairway-fronting condominiums and model homes with names like The Amalfi and The Tuscany.

“Things have really started to take off here,” said Robert Shaughnessy, a Spanish Hills sales manager and real estate broker for the past five years.

“The market recovered, we adjusted our pricing to a more market-driven price structure and we’ve sold quite a few lots,” Shaughnessy said. “They choose the lot and they choose the model they like, and we’ll build the homes.”

The models are unlike most model houses now on the market--expansive homes constructed on wide lots, with sweeping staircases, lots of windows and prices to match.

Classical music now greets prospective buyers when they enter the foyers of the model homes.

Asking prices for the models vary between $600,000 and $830,000--not the million-dollar, custom-built homes the original developers had envisioned, but still far more than Camarillo’s average home price of $216,100.

Early last year, partners in Spanish Hills Development Co. opted out of the development game and turned the balance of its lots over to Colony Advisors Inc., which launched an advertising blitz featuring radio spots and cable television blurbs to lure potential buyers from elsewhere in Ventura County and beyond.

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Within the past year, more than 50 of the 95 lots Colony purchased from Spanish Hills Development have been resold to private buyers, Shaughnessy said.

“The [buyer] profile is pretty wide ranging, from younger professionals with small children all the way to retired couples moving from the [San Fernando] Valley or points east,” he said.

“But most of the prospective buyers come from within a 25-mile radius of the development,” he said.

In addition to the oversized home sites, Spanish Hills Development sold other property to the Larwin Co. of Encino, which is building 90 condominiums along the edge of the golf course.

Situated on about 12 acres surrounding the golf course, the patio homes each feature as much as 1,950 square feet of living space starting at $260,000.

The original developers also sold the golf course and country club to Buena Vista Golf Properties of Florida, which now operates the private club that opened three years ago.

“The real estate activity is really going to put us over the top,” said Ty McCutcheon, marketing director for the Spanish Hills Golf and Country Club.

“It’s exciting to see the club grow to its capacity,” he said. “People get the sense that it’s a real community. There’s homes here, people live here, and there are kids playing in the streets.”

The country club includes a health and fitness spa, a 37,000-square-foot clubhouse, five tennis courts, and an 18-hole golf course--which McCutcheon says was named the best new links inthe state by California Golf Magazine.

The average member is a family man in his mid- to late-40s, and an executive of a local company or the owner of his own business, McCutcheon said.

“People are making more money, and they feel more confident spending it,” he said. “The other thing is, Ventura County is continuing to attract the types of people who can afford to enjoy a club like ours.”

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The development is home to some of the wealthiest residents of Ventura County, including Edward Atsinger, the conservative broadcasting magnate who has contributed tens of thousands of dollars to local and statewide political campaigns.

The country club routinely hosts fund-raisers and other gala affairs benefiting candidates and pet projects favored by Ventura County’s elite.

Although the country club boasts 900 members, only 50 or so families now inhabit the plush hillside community. Property owners also must join a homeowners association that sets policy, enforces codes and collects monthly dues in excess of $200 from each landowner.

Another concern for some property owners are the top-end water bills, which many residents report as high as $500 or $600 a month to keep their extensive landscaping nourished.

Under pressure from an angry group of Spanish Hills residents, the Camarillo City Council earlier this year agreed to restructure water rates in an attempt to make the system more equitable.

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Prior to June, the council charged the largest consumers--such as those who live in Spanish Hills--slightly more per gallon than those using less water each month.

“This is a very discriminatory pricing structure,” Spanish Hills resident Barry Berkowitz told the council during a 90-minute public hearing. “It’s prejudiced against one-acre property owners like myself.”

Even with reduced rates, the monthly fees top $400 for many.

One of the first residents to move into Spanish Hills was Roberta Walski, the owner of several rehabilitation clinics in Ventura County who moved into her custom home in early 1995.

“We built ours from scratch,” said Walski, who traded uphill after 15 years in the Santa Rosa Valley.

“It’s quiet, peaceful, and it’s a beautiful atmosphere,” said Walski, who sits on the association board. “I love the proximity to the club, and the easy access to the freeway.”

For Walski, the marketing move to offering model homes translates to more prospective buyers crowding the neighborhoods on their days off.

“Obviously, the advertising has paid off,” she said. “Every weekend there’s lines and lines of cars.

“We’re happy to see the building going on,” Walski said. “The homes look real nice. They’re not as large as some of the scratch homes that have been built, but in terms of quality, they look real nice.”

There is one sticking point to the Spanish Hills lifestyle, however.

The home dealers and many of the residents have worked for years to get gates built around the rim of the property, locking out those who do not own a patch of the hillside.

“If there was any way that could be done, several of the neighbors would like to have that,” Walski said. “I would feel more secure just because of the traffic going through all the time.”

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But city Planning Director Matthew A. Boden said closing the streets to through traffic is not an option.

“Spanish Hills was never meant to be a gated community,” he said. “Crestview Avenue has to tie into Central Avenue to improve the overall circulation.”

Many residents have petitioned for closed streets after they purchased property on the hill, Boden said.

“But you can’t go in afterward and ask to change the circulation, and that’s what happened,” he said.

Just across what is now the border of the Spanish Hills development, Richard and Barbara Shipley built their dream home on Crestview Avenue nine years ago.

The golf and country club, and the homes that accompany the resort, have been a boon for the neighborhood, Barbara Shipley said.

“When they first proposed it, a lot of the neighbors were against it,” she said. “But we didn’t participate in any of those meetings. We would much rather see a community like Spanish Hills go in than dense, urban housing.”

Shipley, whose home overlooks three Spanish Hills lots, including a custom home now under construction, said the past six months have seen tremendous growth on the country club property.

“The only thing that might bother us a little bit is the dust and the noise from all the building,” she said. “But I’m sure there was a lot of dust and noise when we built our house.”