Camarillo Council OKs New Plans for Pitts Ranch Project

The City Council on Wednesday approved revised plans for the Pitts Ranch housing development, which will result in a reduced number of houses and enhanced creek preservation, but will also cut back on parkland.

The council voted 4 to 1 in favor of the new plan, which partially converts plans for a 39-acre industrial park to housing and eliminates a proposed 165-unit mobile home park. The project will now eventually contain 900 housing units.

The 35-acre site previously slated for the mobile home park will remain as open space to protect the Calleguas Creek habitat. The project will be developed in an area south of Upland Road between Lewis Road and Calleguas Creek.

Park district officials voiced concern about the revised plans because they will have to give up six of the 16 acres that the developer planned to dedicate as parkland. Most of the six acres would be set aside as the future site of the area’s new school.

Although most council members said they placed a higher value on education over recreation, Mike Morgan voted against the rezoning plan because it would take land away from the parks district.

“We don’t have a quality baseball complex and multipurpose facility in the community, and we’re running out of space to do this,” he said. “We need to look to the future, not the immediate.”

Pardee Construction’s original plan, approved in 1989, called for about 1,090 housing units to be constructed on 211 acres that now contain row crops and lemon orchards.

Developers plan to begin housing construction in October.