Outlet Mall in Camarillo Opens, Traffic Improvements to Proceed

After weathering a prolonged legal dispute, a new Camarillo factory outlet mall expected to eventually bring the city $500,000 a year formally opened its doors Tuesday during brief morning ceremonies.

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But even as some of the mall’s 44 stores and shops welcomed customers for the first time, concerns about traffic jams emerged. Although only about a dozen of its discount stores opened early last weekend, traffic in and out of the mall was backed up Saturday and Sunday, police said.

And adding to the problem at the Camarillo Factory Stores will be the closure of a key southbound on-ramp to the Ventura Freeway at Carmen Drive for the next 11 months, as work begins to widen the drive’s overpass to four lanes.

City traffic engineer Tom Fox said motorists should use the Las Posas Road on- and off-ramps to go to the 165,000-square-foot mall.

“Motorists will still be able to use Carmen to get to the mall, they just won’t be able to get back to the freeway going southbound from Carmen,” Fox said. “We want them to learn to use Las Posas as their main exit route until the Carmen bridge is finished.”

Steven L. Craig, president of Chelsea GCA Realty, one of the mall’s developers, said he was not overly concerned about the traffic problems and was just glad the mall is finally open.

“It’s been a rough road for us, but we are very glad to have arrived at this day,” Craig said. “We believe this facility will be a very positive addition to Camarillo and in the end will be well worth the hardships we have faced.”

The mall was approved by the City Council in 1993 but was delayed by two lawsuits that challenged the thoroughness of the city’s environmental review of the project.

The mall’s first phase was built in about nine months. A second phase will be reviewed by city officials within the next month and construction could begin by May. A third and final phase would bring the mall to more than 450,000 square feet.

During Tuesday’s ceremonies under cloudy skies in a courtyard bedecked with blue and white balloons, city officials hailed the long-awaited mall.

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Nearby, employees of outlet stores such as OshKosh B’Gosh, Levi’s and Mikasa readied their stores for customers. Managers of about a dozen stores that opened over the weekend said they were encouraged by the response of shoppers.

“We were happily mobbed over the weekend,” said Bass manager Ed Ball, whose store offers casual and outdoor clothing. “From the moment we opened the doors until the time we closed we had dozens of customers in the store. We have very high expectations for this mall.”

Mayor Mike Morgan praised the development, saying it was worth the wait and the struggle.

“We have all gone through so much to make this happen,” Morgan said. “But I think you’ll agree it was worth the wait. This facility will offer our residents more options and hopefully, will keep more of their shopping dollars right here at home.”

Officials estimate that the mall will bring $400,000 and $500,000 a year in sales tax to the city.

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But Kevin G. Staker, a Camarillo attorney, said the city should have stopped the mall’s opening until the traffic problems were solved.

“There’s no way the factory outlet mall should have been opened until the Carmen ramps were realigned and the bridge was constructed,” Staker said. “The residents of this city are going to pay a tremendous price because the city has an all-consuming drive to get the mall open.”

Fox said the construction schedule of the Carmen bridge and the mall’s opening were coincidental. Officials said the city has been trying to get state permits for the bridge for nearly a decade.