CAMARILLO : Boys & Girls Club Seeks OK for Expansion

With some 2,000 children from the Camarillo area crowding into the Camarillo Boys & Girls Club for summer and after-school diversion, the gymnasium is packed and space to run and play is at a premium, officials say.

Club officials and organizers hope to change all that when they ask the Camarillo Planning Commission tonight to approve a $1.3-million renovation and expansion of the 21-year-old facility.

“We just have too many kids and don’t know what to do with them,” said Jay Grigsby, the club’s executive director. “It seems that we are literally bursting at the seams.”

Club officials want permission to expand the games room, build a new snack bar and eating area, add a new computer lab and renovate the learning center. They also hope to build new restrooms and a community / teen-age meeting room, Grigsby said.

Other plans call for a new theater area, kitchen and storage rooms. Additionally, plans call for new administrative office space and the 41 additional parking spaces at the site.

A canopy would be built over the building’s Ponderosa Drive entrance and a new entrance would be constructed on its southeast corner. In total an additional 1,830 square feet of space would be added to the building. Another 1,720 square feet of existing space in the facility would be furnished and used for the first time.

City planning department staff members are recommending that the commission approve the proposal.

If approved by the commission, construction could start next April, depending on how successful fund-raising efforts are. Construction is expected to take about eight months.

Grigsby said a fund-raising campaign has collected about $600,000 toward the $1.3-million goal. He said club officials want to eventually raise an additional $1 million to maintain the facilities and programs.

The expansion is necessary because of the area’s growing dependence on the Boys & Girls Club for youth activities, Grigsby said.

“With the school systems cutting back in their cultural enrichment programs the club has become a viable alternative,” he said.

The commission meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. at City Hall, 601 Carmen Drive.