1,000 Homes Proposed for Fillmore

A Calabasas home builder unveiled a proposal this week to carve out the largest development in Fillmore history, an ambitious mix of houses, parkland and a new elementary school on 400 acres of farmland on the eastern edge of the city.

Over the next decade, Griffin Industries wants to build 1,000 homes, a 100-room spa resort and a community park, including soccer fields and softball diamonds, between California 126 and the Santa Clara River. The homes would be priced from about $250,000 to about $500,000.

The plan, still in preliminary stages, was embraced this week by some city leaders, who say it could ease a housing crunch and help fuel the economy of Ventura County’s poorest city.

“Overall, I think it’s on the right track,” said City Councilman Evaristo Barajas, who screened the proposal Tuesday night with his council colleagues, planning commissioners and school district officials. “It’s a project that is going to provide Fillmore with some of the things it has been lacking.”

Slow-growth advocates assailed the plan, however, saying it would eat up productive farmland and pose a flood risk for residents closest to the Santa Clara River.

They are threatening to renew a push to enact a citywide growth-control law--rejected by voters once before--that would block the project and prevent farmland from being rezoned for development without a public vote.

Fillmore is one of the few cities in the county without such growth-control restrictions. And its proximity to the Los Angeles County line, where Newhall Land & Farming Co. is proposing to build a sprawling community of 70,000 people, has prompted concern among some residents about rampant sprawl and the loss of farmland.

“If we proceed with another [growth-control measure], it is going to have to be done in an expeditious fashion,” said Paul Harding, a Fillmore resident and one of the leaders of the slow-growth measure known as SOAR.

“I know the city has a scarcity of land, and that is forcing us to develop in real marginal areas, but I would rather see us address our housing needs by concentrating on in-fill development,” he said. “We have a fair amount of land in town where we can build.”

As envisioned, Griffin’s Heritage Valley Parks project would be crisscrossed with bike paths and nature trails, connecting a 30-acre community park to the state fish hatchery and a proposed 36-acre environmental preserve along the banks of the Santa Clara River.

The project would be built in three phases. The first would include 370 homes, the community park and an elementary school designed to accommodate up to 600 students.

Fillmore has only one park and the one proposed would be nearly four times bigger, said Matthew Griffin, director of planning for Griffin Industries. The school would ease crowding that currently burdens the city system.

The park and the school would be paid for by the development and built at no cost to existing residents.

Future phases would include a fire department substation, a 20-acre commercial resort and a private, gated entrance into the project for residents of the adjacent El Dorado Mobile Home Park, to ease their access to Highway 126.

“We are very pleased with the response we got,” Griffin said of the initial reaction to the proposal. “It’s a very, very good first step but it’s only a first step.”

Much of the land proposed for the development is not in the city and would have to be annexed. The City Council on Tuesday voted to seek proposals for an environmental review of the project.

In the meantime, Griffin said he wants to formally submit the proposal to the City Council next month and hopes to have approvals in place by next summer. If so, the project could break ground in the fall of 2002.

Fillmore City Councilwoman Linda Brewster said no one on the council favors rampant development. But she said Fillmore needs some residential and commercial development to pump up its economy and provide housing for a growing population.

With few other places in the city to build, she said a smart, well-planned development in the southeast area appears to be the best remedy.

“That’s why we are pursuing this,” Brewster said. “This is our last chance to grow and we’ve got to do it right.”