CAMARILLO : City Extends Law Limiting Growth

Camarillo has extended its 14-year-old growth ordinance for another 10 years.

The City Council Wednesday voted unanimously to extend the law, which limits residential development to 400 new homes annually, until 2005. It was scheduled to expire at year’s end.

“We don’t have even the slimmest glimmer of a controversy in extending the growth ordinance,” said Vice Mayor David Smith. “It’s one of the most significant laws in preserving our quality of life.”

Only one person spoke in opposition to the ordinance. Dee Zinke, executive officer of the Building Industry Assn., said the city has not shown an overwhelming need for such stringent limits on construction.

Camarillo’s median home price is among the county’s highest at $235,500, and its 3.3% housing vacancy rate is one of the lowest, but city officials do not attribute that to the growth ordinance. Certain projects, including senior citizen and affordable housing developments, are exempted.

“What you see is one of the strongest growth-control initiatives in Southern California,” said Mayor Mike Morgan, who led the effort to put the growth initiative on the ballot in 1981. “It’s given us a steady growth rate rather than the large, grand hit-and-run.”