City Backs Plan for University

The Ventura City Council has voted 5 to 1 in support of a formal resolution endorsing the plan to build a four-year university on the grounds of Camarillo State Hospital.

Councilman Ray Di Guilio voted against the resolution Monday night.

Although he said he supports having a California State university in Ventura County, he argued that supporting the resolution amounted to espousing the not-in-my-backyard syndrome on a city level.

Slow-growth proponents helped defeat an effort to put a Cal State campus on Taylor Ranch in west Ventura nearly a decade ago.

“How can we say we don’t want those things to occur, but that we want them to occur somewhere else?” Di Guilio asked.

He was referring to construction of additional highway offramps and other support services a community would have to provide if a university came to town.

Councilman Jim Monahan was not at the council meeting.

Ventura joins Ojai, Oxnard, Thousand Oaks and Camarillo in supporting the construction of Cal State University, Channel Islands on the grounds of Camarillo State Hospital. The mayor of Simi Valley also sent a letter expressing support.