Camarillo City Council to Consider Residential Project

The Camarillo City Council will consider Wednesday a proposal to develop a residential project and golf course on a hilly, 236-acre parcel that includes a 168-acre citrus orchard.

Camarillo-based developer Knightsbridge Holdings Inc. has proposed to build 302 housing units and an 18-hole golf course that would be open to the public on the property north of Wright Road at Beardsley Road.

Two-thirds of the property is used for growing citrus, primarily lemons, but inferior soil limits the land’s agricultural value, planning documents show.

The orchard generally produces a lower-than-average yield of citrus, the documents say.

The council has reviewed at least four previous development proposals by Knightsbridge for the property since 1988, said Senior Planner Bob Burrow.

Council members dismissed previous proposals because the property was surrounded by farmland and was not next to other development, Councilman David Smith said.

But Smith said the council may be receptive this time because the Spanish Hills project next to the Knightsbridge property is now under development and because Knightsbridge includes a golf course that would be open to the public.

Smith said some Camarillo residents are disgruntled that there are two private golf courses, at Leisure Village retirement community and Las Posas Country Club, and a third private course under construction at Spanish Hills.

Only one Camarillo golf course is open to the public: the course at Camarillo Springs at the bottom of the Conejo Grade.