School Board Backs Plans for CSUCI

Pleased by plans for the county’s first public university, the county Board of Education has formally endorsed a proposal to transform Camarillo State Hospital into a four-year state university.

Creating Cal State University Channel Islands and allowing commercial ventures around campus to help pay for the university make fiscal sense, said board President Marty Bates.

“Universities don’t pay for themselves, and the more revenue we can develop at the university site, the less the taxpayer will have to pay to provide for the university system in Ventura County,” said Bates who, along with the other four trustees, voted Monday night to support the plan.

To offset costs for the local university, Cal State officials said it would require commercial enterprises that might include a retirement center on the outskirts of campus, the leasing of university buildings to private businesses and construction of single family housing.

The plan has raised concerns from some Ventura County leaders who worry that the businesses may pose a significant financial risk and that the development would bring unwanted traffic and safety problems to Camarillo and nearby Newbury Park.

Some have also painted the Cal State system as a public agency turned developer, but university officials maintain that they need a way to offset costs.

An estimated $6.2 million that officials hope to generate annually from the ventures by 2005 would go toward the $40-million to $45-million price tag for converting the hospital into a school.