Growth in Industry, Entertainment Raises New Challenges for Camarillo

Call Camarillo anything you like, but don’t call it a quiet bedroom community--at least not any more.

In the year ahead, the city of 60,000 will face new challenges that go hand in hand with its evolution into a center for high-tech industry, shopping and even entertainment.

Founded in 1964, the city is building on trends that became evident only in recent years with construction of the Camarillo Premium Outlet center and a blossoming of biotech and other cutting-edge businesses.

“It’s taken a number of years, but we’re reaching that point . . . we’re providing for our residents’ needs--both job-wise and [in] shopping,” Assistant City Manager Larry Davis said.

Among the most potentially significant developments in 1998 is a proposed 16,000-seat amphitheater that county parks officials hope to open by summer.

The Camarillo City Council has expressed grave concern in recent months on how the county plans to convert Camarillo Regional Park into an amphitheater nearly the size of the Great Western Forum in Inglewood.

Although hung up by environmental lawsuits and the lack of federal permits, plans for the amphitheater and an 18-hole golf course loom over the heads of city officials like a thundercloud about to burst.

“If approved, the traffic the amphitheater will generate will affect Camarillo greatly,” Mayor Charlotte Craven said. “Perhaps the council should have discussed more than the traffic impact agreement before the Board of Supervisors made its decision.”

County officials, however, must still obtain a federal permit through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which remains concerned over the project’s impact on environmentally sensitive wetlands.

The city manager, however, says all the city can do now is work out a traffic agreement that would require the amphitheater operators to ensure that routes to Camarillo Regional Park operate at least as well as they do during rush hours.

Other potential entertainment developments in Camarillo this year include a skateboard park, motocross track and movie production.

The Pleasant Valley Recreation and Park District has set aside $100,000 for Ventura County’s first full-size skateboard park, expected to cost about $175,000.

Construction of the 10,000-square-foot facility, to be built at Pleasant Valley Park at Ponderosa Road and Temple Avenue, should begin by spring and be open this summer, district Manager John Williamson said.

Santa Cruz-based architect Zachary Wormhoudt plans to come back with a design in the next several weeks from clay models molded by Camarillo skateboarders, complete with ramps, pyramids and rails.

The City Council should also decide by the end of the month whether to contribute $50,000 toward the project.

There has also been talk of a motocross raceway being developed this year. But the park district has not been able to find the 3- to 5-acre site needed, Williamson said.

City boosters also are optimistic that intensified efforts to lure film crews to Camarillo will pay off in 1998. They believe the design of old Camarillo State Hospital and the World War II flavor of Camarillo Airport will be attractive to movie makers, who have increasingly sought Ventura County locations in recent years.

“Filming is a win-win situation for any community, because it brings in money with no long-term impacts,” Craven said.

Not all the news this year will involve dollars and cents: Three City Council seats will be up for grabs in November. Incumbents Craven, Mike Morgan and Stan Daily have decided to seek another term. No challengers have yet announced plans to run.

Other events in the offing for 1998:

* Construction of the 211-acre Pitts Ranch development, designed to hold 900 homes. Grading is scheduled to begin Feb. 1 and models are to be ready for viewing about July. The developers expect to take about three years to complete the project, which will also include a new elementary school to accommodate the estimated 800 new students the development will bring.

* Issuance of $8 million in bonds to rehabilitate the 150-unit Park Glenn Apartments for low-income residents.

* Rejuvenation of aging Pleasant Valley school campuses. About $8.5 million will go toward modernization projects of all schools, while another $3 million will pay for new classrooms to keep pace with growth and class-size reduction. The projects are made possible by voters who approved a bond measure on the November ballot.

* Improvement of electrical service. Frequent power failures prompted Southern California Edison to set aside $1 million to deal with the outages in Camarillo, Oxnard and Port Hueneme. Camarillo officials have asked Edison for monthly progress reports.

* Much-anticipated renovation of Old Town. A redevelopment coordinator will be hired and initial design studies will be put into concrete form. The city will also send out letters this month to various developers and property owners, soliciting proposals for redevelopment of the old fire station and former city hall on Ventura Boulevard.