A plan to widen Calleguas Creek and prevent future flooding will reach its next environmental hurdle this week.

The Camarillo City Council will consider certifying the project's final environmental impact report after a public hearing Wednesday. Planning commissioners gave their OK last week.

Before the Village at the Park housing project can be completed, the city required the developer to make some infrastructure improvements, said Community Development Director Bob Burrow.

Those improvements included building a school, grading sites for the parks and eliminating a flood hazard.

A portion of Calleguas Creek, next to Village at the Park, would overflow during a 100-year storm event, according to the Ventura County Watershed Protection District.

The flooding is projected to reach single-family homes to the east, the Lamplighter Mobile Home Park and a portion of the Village at the Park Specific plan area to the west.

Western Pacific Housing, which is developing Village at the Park, has proposed widening a 5,700-foot stretch of the creek by about 30 feet to allow for increased flow and remove those areas from the threat of a 100-year flood.

The portion of the creek to be widened is near Highway 101 south of Pleasant Valley Road.

If the council approves the report, hydrology studies, habitat restoration plans and other permitting requirements will need to be completed.

Dennis Hardgrave, of Development Planning Services Inc., which has been representing the developer, said the permitting process is expected to take no fewer than six months.

In the meantime, Public Works Director Tom Fox said detention basins have been dug to allow the creek to flood into the holes, if the water reaches the creek's banks.

Western Pacific has no estimate at this time of the project's cost, Hardgrave said.

Preparing the EIR, which is also paid for by Western Pacific, cost about $150,000, Burrow said.

Included in the final report are mitigation measures for some potentially significant environmental impacts.

For example, vegetation removal will be done outside of the nesting season to avoid potential impacts on birds. The season is generally frommid-February through August.

The project also proposes lowering the stream bottom by 3 feet and building a 14-foot access road on each side of the creek.

The access road on the western side of the creek would accommodate a future pedestrian walkway or a bike trail, according to the city.

The report was completed last year, and a 45-day public comment period was opened. About five comment letters were received during that time, Burrow said, and those comments were responded to in the final report.