Old Town fire station now zoned for restaurant
By Daniel Wolowicz camarillo@theacorn.com

The Camarillo City Council voted unanimously last week to rezone the long defunct fire station on Ventura Boulevard in Old Town to allow for a restaurant in a public building.

The new restaurant and refurbishment of the landmark comes on the heels of a $5.5-million redevelopment project that has given the shop-lined historic boulevard a fresh look.

Owned by the Camarillo Community Development Commission, the 6,000squarefoot building is zoned as rural exclusive, a zoning designation usually given to large estates with animals and farming activity. It is also used for public buildings, such as fire and police stations.

City Manager Jerry Bankston said the city invited development companies to submit bids to bring a restaurant to the fire station, which was closed in 1995 when the Ventura County Fire Department moved the station to Pickwick Drive.

Bankston said the city chose Santa Monica-based developer Grand American Inc. to help attract a restaurant to the empty building.

He said the city picked Grand American because of the company's track record of developing restaurants in historic business areas, such as Santa Monica, Pasadena and Aspen, Colo.

Bruce Phillips, president of Grand American, said his company plans to bring "a very highend restaurant" to that location.

Phillips said a number of possible tenants have approached him about the fire station location, but wouldn't comment on which companies have asked to be considered.

In the coming months, Grand American will present the City Council with plans for the new restaurant, and the city will be expected to give the go-ahead for the building's remodel and its future tenant by next year.

Ed Burns, Camarillo's redevelopment coordinator, said the city does not want the building to be demolished.

Phillips said most restaurateurs prefer to move into a building they can completely remodel in order to meet their specific needs.

"They'll have their fingerprint on how they do the interior of the place," Burns said. The city will not help finance the fire station's remodel.

The city decided to move forward with redeveloping the building now that the third and final phase of the Old Town redevelopment project is coming to a close.

City officials didn't want to open a new restaurant in the midst of construction along Ventura Boulevard, Burns said.

Berry Construction had been using the fire station as a base of operations during the five-year beautification project in Old Town that included landscaping and street upgrades between Arneill and Lewis roads.

According to fire department spokesperson Bill Nash, the original fire station on Ventura Boulevard was built in 1941 on property donated by Adolfo Camarillo.

Nash said the two-story fire station originally had an upstairs apartment for Eugene Putna, the department's first paid employee, who lived there with his family until he retired in 1962.