The Costco Opening Oct. 30 Is Half of the West Ventura Boulevard Corner. The Other Half Has a Deadline.

"We're all anticipating going and shopping there, and changing our weekend routines."

Georg Winkler, Camarillo's economic and business development manager, told the Los Angeles Times that this month. He was talking about the Costco warehouse that opens Oct. 30 at 431 W. Ventura Blvd. The store sits at the northeast corner of West Ventura Boulevard and Springville Drive, just south of Highway 101. Most coverage treats Oct. 30 as the last chapter of a long story. For anyone in Central Camarillo, that is only partly true. The warehouse fills the eastern 20 acres of a 44.84-acre property. City records still list the western 24.84 acres under an older shopping-center approval. That approval expires on April 19, 2027, and no tenant or application has been filed for it.

So the corner that becomes part of so many errand runs at the end of October is half built. What happens to the other half is a 2027 question.

Nineteen Years From First Approval to Opening Day

The land under the new parking lot was farmed for most of the last century. Row crops grew there from at least 1927 until cultivation stopped in 2007. Here is how it got from there to a warehouse:

1. September 12, 2007. Camarillo approved a commercial center of up to 499,000 square feet on all 44.84 acres. The Camarillo Acorn notes that the earlier versions of that project were never built.
2. 2022. Costco applied to change the approved plans so it could build a 163,177-square-foot warehouse and a separate fuel facility.
3. December 2023. The Planning Commission approved the project 4–1. Some residents objected over traffic, air quality and wildlife, including burrowing owls.
4. February 2024. The City Council upheld the approval. A community group, Ventura County Citizens Against Mega Gas, then sued under the California Environmental Quality Act.
5. February 2026. A Ventura County Superior Court judge had already ruled for the city, and opponents appealed. In February 2026 the appeals court also ruled for the city, which cleared the way for construction to finish.
6. May 1, 2026. The gas station at 437 W. Ventura Blvd. opened ahead of the store.
7. October 30, 2026. The warehouse opens, according to Costco's own location listing.

From the first approval to a working store took 19 years. That history matters for the western half of the site, because the same long-running approval still covers it.

Five Months of Gas Before Groceries

The gas station has been running on its own since spring. The approved plans call for 16 dispensers that serve 32 cars at once, room for 42 cars to wait in line, regular and premium fuel, and access for members only. The Acorn's photo caption sums up what changed in May. Local members could fill up without driving to the Oxnard warehouse, which the Acorn puts about four miles away. The Los Angeles Times says about five.

Fuel was the first trip the site took over. The rest of the shopping list follows on Oct. 30. The Times reports that bulk shoppers had been driving to Oxnard, Simi Valley and Westlake. Winkler described the new store as a way to "recapture what we call retail leakage from the other cities, and keep the Camarillo residents in Camarillo." The same article points out that Camarillo's sales tax is 7.25% and Oxnard's is 9.25%.

The warehouse covers about 160,000 square feet, with a bakery, pharmacy, optical and hearing aid centers, a tire center and a food court. The Acorn reports more than 877 parking spaces. The approved site plan puts the count at 901. The Acorn also notes the timing. The doors open one day before Halloween.

How Cars Get In, and What Hasn't Been Announced

The approved plan gives the site three entrances for cars. Two driveways open onto Ventura Boulevard, and a third connects to Overland Road at the northeast corner. Delivery trucks for the warehouse are routed through Overland, and fuel tankers come in from Ventura Boulevard. In the research behind this post, we found no new traffic signal or road widening required for Costco. The Acorn described the final site-improvement plan, adopted May 28, 2025, as dealing with traffic flow through the fuel station.

That design has drawn questions from neighbors. Joan Handzel, 86, lives nearby on Springville and joined the lawsuit. She told the Los Angeles Times that most of her neighbors are excited to shop there, and that she worries Ventura Boulevard will be "packed." A 2023 trip study estimated 5,963 weekday primary trips for Costco. That figure was a planning projection made before construction, not a measurement.

As of Sept. 30, several details for opening week had not been made public:

• Store hours. Costco's warehouse page lists the Oct. 30 date and still says "coming soon," with no hours posted.
• A ribbon-cutting or ceremony time. None appeared in the city's announcement, on Costco's page or in local coverage we checked.
• Traffic or parking plans for opening week. Neither the city nor Costco has published one. The only route advice we found is a local guide's general tip to use the Highway 101 Springville Drive exit.

Membership prices are posted. Costco lists Gold Star at $65 a year and Executive at $130, and Executive members get early warehouse access starting at 9 a.m.

A Busy October Along Ventura Boulevard

The Costco opening lands in a month when several other businesses along the Highway 101 frontage are opening or reopening, and some roads nearby are carrying extra truck traffic:

The city says the extra trucks are supplying emergency repairs on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu. The schedule started Sept. 22. The Ventura County Star reports that Texas Roadhouse plans to employ 220 people.

On the west side, Stephen's Grill at 375 W. Ventura Blvd. is a few blocks from the new warehouse. The Greek and Mediterranean restaurant opened in April 2026 and held its grand opening July 25. The In-N-Out at 1316 Ventura Blvd. closed Aug. 17 to expand its parking lot. An August estimate passed along by the Ventura County Star pointed to a reopening in late September or early October. As of Sept. 30, the company's location page still showed it as temporarily closed.

The 24.84 Acres West of the Warehouse

The western part of the site is the piece most coverage leaves out. Camarillo's June 2026 Development Activity Report, last updated Aug. 10, lists two entries for the property. Costco is a 169,397-square-foot warehouse and fuel project on 20 acres, marked "Under Construction." Amara is a 491,776-square-foot commercial center covering the full 44.84 acres, marked "Approved."

The Amara entry shows an approval date of April 19, 2016, and an expiration date of April 19, 2027. The city's February 2026 Costco announcement said nothing about the western acreage, and no later city news item mentions it. The 2022 Costco application names Springville Camarillo Owner, LLC as the property owner, with an acquisition date of Jan. 22, 2014.

The public record doesn't say what happens next. Any of these could still happen before next April: a tenant announcement, a new application, an extension request or nothing at all. The eastern half took 19 years and a court fight to become a building. The western half has a little more than six months left on its current approval. For Central Camarillo, the store that opens Oct. 30 is the settled part of this corner. The next planning filings will show what happens to the rest.

When a big new anchor opens nearby, homeowners often start wondering how the change affects their own address. The Puckett family has watched West Ventura County corners like this one go from farmland to finished buildings, sometimes over decades. If you'd like a clear read on where your Central Camarillo home stands this fall, Puckett Team Real Estate can put together a current, locally grounded estimate. Get Your Free Home Valuation.