Council approves specific plan for Springville housing development
By Eliav Appelbaum eliav@theacorn.com

The 1,350-unit Springville housing development took another step forward with the Camarillo City Council's 3-2 vote Wednesday to approve the project's specific plan.

City Council members Jan McDonald and Mike Morgan cast the dissenting votes.

In its current state, the 170acre site of the Springville project will include 1,350 units. The first draft of the specific plan had more than 2,000 units, which subsequently dropped to 1,750. Assistant city manager Bruce Feng said these types of projects see many revisions, especially when street routes and open space are taken into consideration.

The majority of the residential units, 660, will be mediumdensity homes. Medium-density homes are townhouses or similar structures.

The project also has set aside 200 low-medium- density homes for single families and 375 highdensity units, which are primarily apartments. There are also 90 units designated for seniors. This residential portion of the project is expected to be complete by summer 2010.

"It wasn't a project that I felt was as good as it could be," McDonald said. "When we have so little vacant land left we have to be very careful with the development. . . . Our policy is that when we make a change from (agriculture) into a development, we have to show the public benefit. To me that was missing. I was also concerned about density and its proximity to the airport."

Twenty percent of the units will be classified as affordable housing, as opposed to 9.3 percent of homes in Village at the Park.

The residential area, which covers 96.1 acres of the site, will be connected through roadways, walkways and open space.

A stretch of open space, about 13.1 acres, has been included on the northwest edge of the project.

"The overriding issue in all this is that it creates a balanced community," Council member Kevin Kildee said. "We can have a lot of different types of housing situations, and people pick and choose what fits into their lifestyle. ... These decisions don't come lightly. This has been discussed for many years here. There's an up and a down side to everything we do."

Springville will also have two 5-acre neighborhood parks and 12 acres for commercial use.

The new Springville Drive interchange- a freeway on- and offramp between Las Posas Road and Central Avenue, needed for the housing development to move forward- still requires 20 acres of land on the north side of the freeway.

In November, the city paid $4.3 million for 20 acres of farmland on the south side of the freeway to accommodate the interchange.

According to city officials, however, the property owners will be required to finance the $30-million interchange.

"Funding of interchange is something developers will have to work out," McDonald said "Without the interchange, the project cannot go forward."