Camarillo City Council
AGENDA REPORT
Date: February 25, 2026
To: Honorable Mayor and City Councilmembers
From: Greg Ramirez, City Manager
Submitted by: Philip Lanzafame, Interim Community Development Director Subject: Proposed Zoning Ordinance Amendment to Certain Sections of Title 19, the Removal of Chapter 19.40, and the Addition of Chapters 19.09, 19.59, and 19.67 to the Camarillo Municipal Code Concerning Zoning Requirements, Development
Standards, and Development Review for Commercial and
Industrial Zoning Districts
BACKGROUND
Over the past several years, staff have identified zoning code issues that have created hurdles for development due to limited flexibility and challenges navigating the code.
While the department’s original work plan anticipated updating the General Plan’s Land Use Element followed by a comprehensive zoning code update, the transition to a full General Plan update extended the timeline for a code update to approximately three years. Recognizing the need for more immediate improvements, staff identified targeted code amendments that are independent of the General Plan update and focused on supporting economic development and making the permitting process more efficient and business friendly. A comprehensive review of land uses citywide will occur following adoption of the General Plan update as part of its implementation.
The proposed amendment to the zoning regulations of the Camarillo Municipal Code (“CMC”) clarifies zoning requirements, streamlines permitting processes, provides consistency across zoning districts, eliminates obsolete land uses, and creates more flexibility in the application of development standards and the regulation of permitted uses. These recommended changes to the CMC are intended to make the development review process more efficient and business friendly, while also providing staff with additional tools to improve the administration of zoning regulations.
The proposed amendment also includes minor revisions to address typographical and grammatical errors and to reorder sections within chapters for consistency across all commercial and industrial zoning districts.
Zoning Ordinance Amendment – Commercial & Industrial Zones February 25, 2026
3 0
7 9
DISCUSSION
New Land Use Matrix
Currently, the permitted uses for the Camarillo Commons Mixed-Use (CCM), Professional Office (P-O), Village Commercial Mixed-Use (CMU), Commercial Neighborhood (C-N), Camarillo Old Town (COT), Commercial Planned Development (CPD), Service Commercial (SC), Limited Manufacturing (L-M), Light Manufacturing (M- 1), and General Manufacturing (M-2) Zones are listed separately within each zoning chapter. This format requires users to navigate between multiple chapters to compare the requirements for each use in each zone. In order to create a more user-friendly format, staff recommend the replacement of the individual use lists with a new land use matrix for these zones. The proposed land use matrix will allow for an easier comparison of the allowed uses and permit requirements across the commercial and industrial zoning districts, organize land uses by category for easy reference, and eliminate inconsistencies and obsolete land uses such as travel agencies, labor supply camps, taxidermy, and telephone exchanges.
Additionally, staff recommends the following land use-related amendments:
Regulate uses ancillary to manufacturing uses to prevent them from becoming more intense than the primary use.
Allow laundry and dry cleaning facilities as a permitted use within the CMU Zone where they are currently not permitted to encourage mixed use developments and localize this service type use.
Allow restaurants as a permitted use within the L-M and M-1 Zones, where they are currently a conditionally permitted use, and the P-O Zone where they are not an allowed use, to streamline the permitting process for new restaurants and provide convenient dining options for employees working in these areas. Allow museums as a permitted use in the M-1 Zone where they are currently not permitted to encourage adaptive reuse of vacant industrial buildings, since museums are a land use that is compatible with light industrial uses.
Process Improvements
The proposed zoning code amendments are recommended to improve current review processes:
Create new stand-alone Planned Development Permit (“PDP”) and Appeals Chapters to improve consistency for these processes.
Add a permit application withdrawal process, at the discretion of the Community Development Director (“Director”), to the Conditional Use Permit (“CUP”) and PDP Chapters if no response is received from the applicant within 180 days following the receipt of a determination of application incompleteness for a new development project to incentivize applicants to move applications forward. Increase the length of CUP and PDP permit terms from twelve months to twenty- four months and allow the Director to grant additional time extensions and elevate Zoning Ordinance Amendment – Commercial & Industrial Zones February 25, 2026
3 0
7 9
a time extension request to the Planning Commission to avoid the need for applicants to submit new applications for projects that have already been analyzed and approved if no substantive changes have occurred since permit approval. Currently, the zoning code requires similar use determinations to be made by the Planning Commission. This amendment will allow similar use determinations to be made by the Director and appealed to the Planning Commission, and the amendment will allow the Director to refer these determinations to the Planning Commission for review and either approval or denial with the ability to appeal the Planning Commission’s decision to the City Council. This recommended revision will allow for straight-forward similar use determination requests to be handled quickly at staff level and maintains a discretionary procedure for more complex requests.
Add a performance standard to Chapter 19.54 (“Commercial/Industrial Performance Standards”) to clarify that all outdoor dining areas must comply with accessibility requirements.
Remove Chapter 19.59 (Building Heights) and consolidate the requirements for building height in the definition of building height in Section 19.04.135 and the requirements for mechanical equipment in the respective chapters for each zoning district.
Development Standards Flexibility
The proposed zoning code amendments are recommended to add flexibility to development standards:
Eliminate drive-through development requirements for separate window areas for payment and pick up of food items and only one drive-through lane to allow greater flexibility to employ modern design standards to address potential circulation and traffic impacts.
Add a clarification to drive-through development requirements that drive-through lanes that front onto a public street also require the installation of a minimum 36- inch wall, hedge, berm, or a combination of these screening measures, consistent with the requirements applied to all off-street parking areas. Remove the requirement for off-street parking to be located no more than three- hundred feet from the use it is intended to serve and add a provision to allow the Director to determine whether or not proposed off-street parking can be provided in a safe and convenient manner. The lack of flexibility in the existing requirements has been challenging to administer projects where safe off-site parking can be provided that is beyond the three-hundred-foot threshold and the recommended revision will allow applicants to construct site improvements to allow for safe off-site parking when feasible.
Allow reduced off-street parking requirements for new development if a parking study, shared parking analysis, or transportation demand management plan demonstrates that the required number of spaces exceeds the reasonably Zoning Ordinance Amendment – Commercial & Industrial Zones February 25, 2026
3 0
7 9
anticipated parking demand.
Add a provision to clarify that electric vehicle charging spaces are required pursuant to the building code and may count toward the minimum number of off- street parking spaces required by Chapter 19.44.
Allow the application of loading space requirements for new industrial development and new industrial uses to be determined through a site-specific analysis at the discretion of the Director. This revision is intended to create greater flexibility for projects that can demonstrate the application of the loading space requirements does not align with the operational needs of the development. Add provision to the development standards for lot size and building setbacks to state that deviations from the standards may be allowed pursuant to approval by the planning commission, approval of a planned development permit, or modification to an approved permit, as applicable.
Development Review Streamlining
The proposed zoning code amendments are recommended to streamline the development review process:
Remove the Director level CUP (“DCUP”) process used exclusively for alcohol beverage manufacturing facilities and short-term day care nurseries with more than six children and allow alcohol beverage manufacturing facilities as a conditionally permitted use and short-term day care nurseries with more than six children as a permitted use. The DCUP process has not been utilized often and does not offer a benefit to applicants, as the process is substantially similar to the discretionary CUP process in regards to staff time and the length of the process.
Instead, staff recommend regulating alcohol beverage manufacturing facilities through the conditional use permit process and allowing short-term day care nurseries as a permitted uses in compliance with State law. Staff have found that alcohol beverage manufacturing facilities have the potential to create adverse impacts without the enforceability of conditions of approval, and short-term day care nurseries are regulated by the State and subject to the provisions of the city’s zoning code.
When multiple applications for the same project are processed concurrently and approval authority rests with both the Planning Commission and City Council, staff recommend adding a provision to allow the City Council to take final action on all concurrent applications, and in such cases, the Planning Commission’s actions will be to provide recommendations to the City Council. This approach streamlines the review and decision-making process by eliminating the need for the Planning Commission to review the same applications an additional time after having already been reviewed by both the Planning Commission and City Council, thereby shortening overall project review times while maintaining Planning Commission input.
Zoning Ordinance Amendment – Commercial & Industrial Zones February 25, 2026
3 0
7 9
Conclusion
Staff recommends amendments to the zoning regulations for commercial and industrial uses in order to clarify development review processes and create more flexibility for the application of development standards, the regulation of off-street parking and loading, and permitted uses.
FISCAL IMPACT
There is no budget impact as a result of this action.
CITY COUNCIL STRATEGIC PLAN FY 2025/26
This item supports the City Council’s Strategic Plan Goal and Objective 4.5 to maintain the City’s land use planning documents to ensure that new development and land uses are consistent with the community’s vision and Goal and Objective 8.2 to retain and expand a diverse and healthy business environment in the city.
CEQA DETERMINATION
The Ordinance is exempt from the provisions of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) in accordance with Section 15061(b)(3) of the CEQA Guidelines because it can be seen with certainty that there is no possibility that the proposed amendment to the CMC may have a significant effect on the environment.
RECOMMENDATION
1. Find that the proposed Ordinance is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) under State CEQA Guidelines §§ 15060(c)(2), 15060(c)(3), and 15061(b)(3); and
2. Introduce an Ordinance amending Title 19, Chapters 19.02, 19.04, 19.12, 19.14,
19.16, 19.20, 19.21, 19.22, 19.23, 19.24, 19.25, 19.26, 19.27, 19.28, 19.30, 19.32,
19.44, 19.46, 19.54, 19.60, 19.61, 19.62, 19.63, 19.66, 19.68, 19.70, 19.76, and
19.84, removing Chapter 19.40, and adding new Chapters 19.09 (Land Use Matrix),19.59 (Planned Development Permits), and 19.67 (Appeals).
ATTACHMENTS
1. Ordinance
2. CMC Redlines
3. Public Hearing Notice
REFERENCE MATERIALS – AVAILABLE FOR REVIEW AT CITY HALL