Drop 165 Units From Pitts Ranch Project, Planners Say

The Planning Commission is recommending changes that would eliminate a mobile home park from the 1,087-unit Pitts Ranch housing development planned for the city’s east end.

Although this would reduce the number of housing units to 922, school officials, already burdened by an overcrowded district, said they are still concerned about how they would accommodate the estimated 800 new elementary students that the development would bring.

“When they start building in October, we’ll have no place to put those kids,” said Howard Hamilton, associate superintendent of the Pleasant Valley School District. “We’ll be busing them across town, and we’re not even sure where we’re even going to put them. There’s no room in eastern Camarillo and downtown is already full.”

The commission voted unanimously Tuesday night to recommend that the City Council revise Pardee Construction’s proposed development, originally approved in 1989. Pardee owns three-quarters of the property and another developer owns a 33-acre portion whose plan has already been approved. The council is scheduled to consider the Pardee revision July 23.

Pardee’s original plan called for a 1,087-unit housing project to be constructed on 211 acres of row crops and lemon orchards. The project site is in the area south of Upland Road between Lewis Road and Calleguas Creek.

The new proposal would convert plans for a 45-acre industrial park to housing. It also would scrap a proposed 165-unit mobile home park and use the remaining 35-acre site as open space to protect habitat of the creek.

But even under the revised plan, the new development would put increased pressure on the school district, which is already struggling to accommodate 7,100 students in its 14 schools.

The school board will decide today whether to place a $49-million school construction bond on the November ballot to help alleviate crowding.

About $10 million of the bond money would be used to build a new elementary school in eastern Camarillo, and $14 million to acquire land and construct another elementary school by the year 2009. The remainder of the money would be used to renovate campuses.

“The new development is definitely complicating matters,” Hamilton said. “If we can pass a bond measure, we’ll be fine. If not, it’ll create a real problem.”

If the bond measure were to pass, it would cost property owners $1.95 per month if their house is assessed at $100,000 and $3.90 if assessed at $200,000, he said.

If the bond measure is not placed on the ballot, Hamilton said, the district would probably be forced to use more portable classrooms as well as hold morning and afternoon sessions to handle students from the Pitts Ranch development.

Pardee will pay developer fees toward construction of a new school, but details of how much it will contribute are still being negotiated.

Meanwhile, park officials said that under the new development plan, they would have to give up six of the 16 acres set aside by the developer for parkland. Most of the six acres is going to the site of a future school.

Park officials, however, said the remaining acreage is insufficient to develop a park large enough to accommodate the community’s needs.

The original development plan called for construction of six baseball fields for youth leagues, a concession building, a children’s play area, open space for picnics and a 120-car parking lot.

“Now we may not be able to develop the field for the youth baseball and just develop it as a community park,” said John Williamson, a parks official. “Camarillo is running out of land that’s large enough to develop for baseball fields.”