City buys 20 acres for Springville interchange
$4.3 million deal helps move massive project forward
By Daniel Wolowicz camarillo@theacorn.com

Camarillo City Manager Jerry Bankston called the Springville Drive interchange the "most complicated puzzle of public works project" of his 34 years working in city government.

But a major piece needed for the interchange snapped into place Wednesday when the City Council voted 5-0 to approve the purchase of 20 acres along the south side of the 101 Freeway to make room for the $32-million project.

The city paid $4.3 million for the farmland located along Ventura Boulevard west of the Home Depot hardware store.

The property was purchased for about $5 per square foot from the Ferro family, which includes Fred C. Ferro, Frederick J. Ferro, Catherine Ferro, John August Ferro, David Michael Ferro and Mary Edna Ferro.

The deal comprises three lots.

The largest piece of land, approximately 15 acres, was bought for about $2.9 million. It will be used as the footprint for the interchange's on- and offramps.

The second largest piece of property is a 5-acre lot purchased for $1.3 million. It will be used to extend Ventura Boulevard from behind Home Depot, where it dead-ends, to Bajo Agua Avenue, about a mile west.

The smallest piece of property, a 9,000-square-foot sliver of land, was bought for $25,000 and will be used for an underground storm drain needed for the interchange.

Bankston called the land buy an "excellent deal" for the city and said the asking price was based on a 2005 appraisal from when the city first entered an agreement with the Ferro family to buy the property.

The purchase price for the undeveloped land is low when compared to similar properties in Camarillo, which sell for about $25 per square foot- nearly five times the asking price of the Ferro property.

"I wouldn't call it a subsidized sale to the city, but I wouldn't say it's probably at the highest fairmarket value," Frederick J. Ferro said of the land sale.

Bankston said the land was appraised as farmland, which is why the city was able to buy it so cheaply.

He said, however, the deal was mutually beneficial because the remaining 35 acres of Ferro property, zoned for light manufacturing and industrial, could never be developed without the interchange.

Ferro, a Somis resident and a vice president with Oxnard-based NAI Capital, has said his family has waited 20 years to move forward with the sale and development of the property.

Ferro did sell 20 acres of his property to Westlake Villagebased Selleck Properties to be used as part of a shopping center in Camarillo.

Because of additional traffic, the interchange is also needed by developers who want to build a 1,350-unit housing community along the north side of the 101 Freeway between Las Posas Road and Central Avenue in Camarillo.

"We know from all traffic counts and surveys that that interchange is a critically important part of our circulation element," Bankston said.

The four families who own the 170-acres of farmland on the north side of the freeway met with city officials in October to discuss their plan to form a special assessment district in order to finance bonds to pay for the interchange that will span the freeway.

The Ferro family would also be part of the special assessment district.

Bankston said in order for the families to begin accepting construction bids for the interchange, Caltrans requires the city to secure all of the right-of-way land needed for the on- and offramps on both sides of the freeway.

The city's 20-acre land buy makes room for the interchange on the south side of the freeway, but Bankston said the city still has to secure about 14 acres of property on the north side of the freeway to allow for the roadway.

He said the deal for the remaining property is in negotiations.

The city has appropriated $7 million to install utility lines and storm drains underground along Ventura Boulevard in preparation for the interchange. The city will eventually pay approximately $19 million to help finance the interchange project.

Because a stretch of Ventura Boulevard will have to be removed along the freeway to make room for the interchange, Selleck Properties will finance a $9-million, fourlane extension of the boulevard from behind Home Depot to Bajo Agua Avenue.

The boulevard's extension will border a 45-acre shopping center to be developed by Selleck Properties.

Although complicated, Bankston said the Springville Drive interchange continues to move forward because of the "tenacity of all the players not to give up."

Bankston said the city wants to break ground on the interchange by July 2008.