Camarillo OKs Outlet Mall as Race Escalates : Economy: The city will give the developer half the project’s sales tax revenue. Oxnard has also approved a similar center.

The Camarillo City Council has given final approval to build a 70-store factory outlet center, forging ahead on the city’s quest to get the first such mall in Ventura County.

After a four-hour hearing, the council voted unanimously late Wednesday to deny challenges filed by Ventura County, the Oxnard Union High School District and a property owner over the city Planning Commission’s earlier approval of the project.

In addition, the council agreed to return to the developer half of the $800,000 in sales tax expected to be generated from the mall each year, a rebate that some supporters considered too generous.

City officials acknowledged that their quick action on the mall was spurred by the ongoing race with Oxnard to build the county’s first retail outlet center. The project was first proposed last fall.

In October, the Oxnard City Council approved its own plan to build an outlet center. But the Oxnard mall would be located five miles from the Camarillo project and market studies indicate that the area could support only one such mall.

Camarillo officials denied, however, that city planners had rushed through their review of the project, as had been charged in the challenges, or that the council was offering special favors to developer Koll Leonard.

“Our intent was to level the playing field” through the tax rebate, City Manager J. William Little said.

Little said Koll Leonard has been unfairly burdened because its property lies in a special district subject to additional taxes for sewer and road improvements.

Under the agreement approved Wednesday, the city would pay 100% of the developer’s special district taxes or refund 50% of its sales taxes from the project, whichever is less in any given year.

The agreement amounts to the city forfeiting up to half of the $800,000 in projected, annual sales taxes from the mall because the property’s special district taxes were about $550,000 last year.

Councilman Stanley J. Daily defended the financial arrangement, saying Camarillo will ultimately gain revenues from the project.

“Fifty percent of something is better than 100% of nothing,” Daily said. “I still maintain this is a very positive deal for the city.”

Daily and other officials rejected the argument that they were giving away public funds, as resident Dick Lundberg and Oxnard Chamber of Commerce President Stephen J. Maulhardt had maintained in their challenge of the project.

Maulhardt owns property next to the mall site and has sued to force Camarillo to retrace its steps and conduct a more detailed environmental review.

Camarillo officials said the tax refund is not a gift because they are getting something in return: the developer’s pledge to open the first phase of the mall, about 30 stores, by December of this year.

The council also denied that city planners had skimped in their scrutiny of the mall’s impact on traffic, air quality and local school districts.

Officials with the Oxnard Union High School District, which encompasses Camarillo, asked the Camarillo council to charge the developer fees that could help build new schools in the overcrowded district.

But Camarillo officials said the retail center would not lead to a substantial number of new families, or students, moving to the area.

The council also rejected a request by Ventura County public works officials to negotiate a reciprocal agreement to share costs of improving city- and county-owned roads before the mall is built.

County officials said they are concerned about the outlet center generating additional traffic on Las Posas Road and other county-owned roads.

Council members agreed to consider such a reciprocal arrangement, but refused to tie it to the retail outlet mall.

With the council’s approval, the project’s developer will have more leverage in its negotiations to arrange financing for the proposed mall, said Tom Leonard, a spokesman for the developer.

The Koll Leonard partnership has run into financial troubles and defaulted on a $17-million loan from Bank of America for the 92-acre property.

Leonard’s family in Camarillo joined with Koll Development Co. of Los Angeles to develop the property south of the Ventura Freeway between Las Posas Road and Carmen Drive. The mall will cover 23 acres, and Koll Leonard is close to completing a deal with Edwards Cinema to build a 12-screen cinema complex next to the mall, Leonard said.

Planned Factory Outlet Malls A. Oxnard mall: 27-acre site just north of Gonzales Rd. B. Camarillo mall: 23-acre site along Camarillo Drive