CAMARILLO : City, University Renegotiate Pact

Camarillo officials and California State University representatives have renegotiated their agreement for a proposed university campus west of the city, bringing the school a step closer to being built.

After three months of negotiations, city and university officials have agreed on new wording about the city’s responsibilities for providing sewer service to the proposed campus, City Manager J. William Little said.

The wording will be in a side agreement to a longer document that sets out how Camarillo, Oxnard and Ventura County will work with the university to widen roads and lay water and sewer lines for the proposed campus.

The Camarillo and Oxnard city councils and the county Board of Supervisors agreed in December to sign off on the longer agreement.

But Camarillo officials demanded a separate agreement to ensure that residents would not pay for expanding their sewer treatment plant to accommodate the new school. “It would be too expensive to our ratepayers,” Little said Tuesday.

City officials and university representatives have now agreed that they would negotiate funding the expansion of the Camarillo sewer treatment plant if such construction is necessary, Little said.

Now that the side letter with Camarillo is settled, the university’s chancellor is expected to sign the overall agreement with Camarillo, Oxnard and the county within two weeks, said David Leveille, the state university’s director of institutional relations.

Leveille, who spoke before the Camarillo Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday, also said the university plans to begin condemnation proceedings in about two months on 190 acres of the 260-acre site for the campus.

Mohseni Ranches, which own the 190 acres, have so far refused to sell, he said.

Sakioka Farms, which own the other 70 acres, have agreed to sell their land to the university for an undisclosed price.