City, Ventura County
© McCormack's Guides
Zip Codes: 93010, 93011, 93012
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Suburban city built on flat lands and gentle hills that open to the Pacific, which shimmers in the distance and blows in its breezes. New town. Well maintained. www.mccormacks.com
Lemon and avocado groves and strawberry fields at city limits and in some places within the city. Bordered on two sides by hills and jagged, striking mountains.
Home to the new California State University, opened in 2002. See following.
Population 65,453. Median age of residents is 39. Children under 18 make up 25 percent of the population. Demographically, these numbers say rounded community, not too many old or young.
Named after a pioneering ranchero family. Used to be called Pleasant Valley. www.mccormacks.com
When Highway 101 reaches the end of Thousand Oaks, it rises into steep hills and mountains then drops into Camarillo and the large (Oxnard) plain that includes Ventura, Oxnard and Fillmore.
The hills buffer Camarillo from the smog that sometimes creeps up from the south. In the evening, when the sun goes down, Highway 101 seems to turn into a stream of lights as commuters snake down the mountain making their way home. On some winter days, the clouds will nestle down on the mountaintops — pretty.
Although Camarillo dates back to 1910 as a town (with a rail depot), the city did not come to life until well after World War II when Highway 101 was extended and improved, and communities closer to Los Angeles completed their construction booms.
In 1950, Camarillo counted only about 300 residential units. In the 1950s, the city added about 800 units and in the following decade, its boom started, 4,200 units. In the 1970s, the pace stepped up, 8,000 homes and apartments, and in the 1980s, Camarillo built about 5,200 units.
In the 1990s, Camarillo erected about 3,500 units, favoring single detached and single attached homes. They make up about 79 percent of all housing units. More single homes are going up, generally on the periphery of the town. Between 2000 and 2006 housing starts numbered about 2,300. www.mccormacks.com
The state in 2008 counted 24,975 housing units — 14,861 single detached, 4,495 single attached, 4,561 apartments or condos, 1,058 mobile homes.
The U.S. came out of World War II fearing the Great Depression would return. The first homes built after the war were small and modest: two bedroom, one bathroom, one-car garage, flattop or gently sloping roof. As the postwar prosperity took hold and confidence strengthened, homes grew bigger: three and later four bedrooms, family rooms and dens, two-car garages.
With its housing boom starting in the 1960s, Camarillo went to the three- and four-bedroom home. The town has its upscale housing, on the west side in a country club subdivision (Spanish Hills) and in the gentle hills to the north. And it is has its specialized housing in the form of a retirement neighborhood (Leisure Village) on the east side.
But for the most part Camarillo built for the middle class, tilting up market. Census data indicates at least 25 percent of the single homes have four bedrooms. Many homes are two-story.
Shrubs trimmed, lawns mowed, houses well maintained — the defining characteristics of a modern, middle-class suburb. The older homes will often have wood shingle roofs, the newer fireproof red or bluish tiles. Many trees. The city has planted the median strips on its arterials; little thing but it cheers up the roads. www.mccormacks.com
Modern planning: many tracts have walls to dampen traffic noise. Rare is the home that fronts on a boulevard, which makes it safer for the kids to play in the side streets.
Camarillo incorporated itself as city in 1964; for most of its modern life planning has been under control of the local residents. City council works from a master plan. Housing starts are limited to about 400 units a year (but in slow years can be “banked” for future construction.) New homes, often custom and upscale, are going up just outside city limits on the northwest. Also in this area, a country club subdivision called Las Posas.
Crime low. One homicide in 2005. Zero in 2004, one each in 2003 and 2002, zero in 2001 and 2000, three in 1999. The counts for the previous years are one, one, zero, one, zero, zero, one. Camarillo has its own police department. See Crime .
Served by the Pleasant Valley Elementary District (K-8th) and Oxnard Union High School District. Compared to other schools in the state, the Pleasant Valley schools are scoring generally in the 70th to 90th percentile, the top third of the state. See Schools.
Most of the teens go to Camarillo High, scores in the 80th percentile, in Camarillo. A smaller number attend Rio Mesa High, scores about the 70th percentile, in Oxnard. www.mccormacks.com
Many residents want to disconnect Camarillo High from Oxnard District and give it to Pleasant Valley district, which would form itself into a unified (K-12) district.
The two districts have been butting heads over this for years and may ask the courts for a decision. Nothing is going to happen soon.
Other possibilities: Oxnard district builds another high school in Camarillo. Camarillo builds its own high school.
In 1997, the Pleasant Valley district passed a bond to build a school and add facilities and renovate schools. Charter elementary school, enrollment 380 students, opened in 2002 near the new university.
Oxnard High School District also has passed a renovation-construction bond. www.mccormacks.com
Camarillo promotional pamphlet says you can make it to L.A. International, 60 miles plus, within an hour — and you can when Highway 101 behaves, which it sometimes doesn’t, the price for country living. On the plus side, Metrolink (commute rail) runs trains to downtown L.A. Bus service around the county and to LAX. Small airport on the west side.
Highway 34 connects to Highway 118, which leads to the north side of the San Fernando Valley and to defense industries around Palmdale and Lancaster. Highway 118 has been greatly improved.
Camarillo has attracted some high-tech firms and wants more. Business park on the east side at Highway 101. Giant outlet mall, which on weekends is loaded with shoppers, near the freeway along with large discount or department stores, including a Target, a Ross, a Staples, a Petco and a Home Depot. Trader Joe's.
Under construction in 2006, near the freeway, a plaza with upscale stores and a large book store.
Camarillo runs its parks and recreation through a taxing district called the Pleasant Valley Recreation and Park District, an important distinction. In California, the quality of local fun and activities depends on funding. www.mccormacks.com
Homes built in unincorporated communities often do a poor job on parks and rec because county governments historically rarely set up parks departments; they don't want the expense.
City governments generally do a good job because they accept parks and rec as one of their duties but often these funds have to compete against potholes and police and other city responsibilities.
Park and Rec districts, with exceptions, often do the best jobs because their funding is secured by a special tax that is controlled by a elected body independent of city hall.
The Pleasant Valley district, founded in 1962, at the start the city's suburban boom, has managed to fund 22 neighborhood parks and five community parks (10-plus-acres), a large number for the size of Camarillo. The amenities include indoor and outdoor swimming pools, ball fields, sports courts, etc. And a variety of classes, sports and activities for all ages. Also hiking and jogging trails. Three-mile bike trail, paved.
The city, as part of a development deal, took possession of an historic ranch, about five acres, and is restoring it in the hope of reminding people of how things used to be. www.mccormacks.com
Boys and Girls Club. Skate park. Two private, one public golf courses. Fifteen minutes to the Pacific.
Annual fiesta and street fair. Christmas parade. Curtain Call Youth Theater, which in 2006 staged, “The Mikado,” the Gilbert and Sullivan favorite. Two movie complexes, one of which specializes in art or offbeat films.
Aviation museum at the airport. Annual air show.
New library under construction, funding from state and city.
Chamber of commerce (805) 484-4383.
• In 2005, Russell Fischer, a retired farmer, died at the age of 93. He had no children and for years amused himself by reading books almost every day at the Camarillo library. The will was read — $11 million, to be divided among charities and the Camarillo library ($4.4 million share). That will buy a few Harry Potters. www.mccormacks.com
• On prom night, to keep the graduates out of mischief, parents throw them a party at the local movie theater. One perk: a fountain of cascading chocolate.
City web site: www.ci.camarillo.ca.us
