Why are heavy rock trucks still rolling down Pleasant Valley Road at nine at night? Since Tuesday, Sept. 22, a quarry just south of town has been loading and hauling from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., Monday through Saturday. The rock is going to emergency repairs on Pacific Coast Highway, and the City of Camarillo expects the extra hauling to run through Dec. 15, 2026.
On Oct. 20, partway through that stretch, the Ventura County Board of Supervisors voted 4–1 to give the same quarry a 60-year permit. Because the vote landed in the middle of the evening hauling, this fall can look like a preview of the next six decades. The approved conditions point the other way. Regular hours stay at 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. The evening hauling Camarillo has seen since late September can only come back if a government agency asks for it in writing, and each approval lasts two weeks at most.
Where the Trucks Start
The trucks come from Pacific Rock Mine at 1000 S. Howard Road. It sits on Conejo Mountain south of Camarillo, next to Conejo Mountain Memorial Park. The Camarillo Acorn has reported that rock has been mined there since 1902. The site's original conditional use permit went to L.S. Hawley Corp. in 1980, and Pacific Rock bought the operation in December 2000.
The city's notice calls it the closest mining operation able to supply what the repairs need: rock, aggregate and riprap, the large boulders stacked along shorelines to protect roadbeds. The notice names three routes the trucks use to reach Highway 1:
- Pleasant Valley Road
- Highway 34, which is Lewis Road and Hueneme Road
- Las Posas Road
No trucks run on Sundays. The city also says the longer hours don't add any blasting or mining. The extra time is for loading and hauling. The notice doesn't give a number of trucks per day. Camarillo Review pointed out that the city described the traffic only as "multiple heavy-duty trucks throughout the day."
Where the Rock Ends Up
The city ties the repairs to coastal erosion along Pacific Coast Highway in the Palisades Fire burn scar and to a sinkhole in Malibu. Malibu.FM reported more precisely that the Camarillo rock is headed to Caltrans' emergency work protecting PCH at Tuna Beach, between Big Rock and Topanga Beach. Rock for a separate repair at Deer Creek is coming from Ojai.
That gives the late hours a clear purpose. The rock helps keep a coastal highway from washing out, and Camarillo is just the nearest place that has it. By Oct. 1, The Malibu Times reported that waves had damaged the Tuna Beach site and Caltrans had moved the embankment work there to nights only. The paper also reported that, as of that date, repairs at the western end of Malibu near County Line could stop traffic in both directions at times, with boulder placement affecting traffic from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. That's worth checking before you take Highway 1 south to Malibu this fall.
What the Board Approved on October 20
The fight over the quarry's future is older than the hauling. The Ventura County Planning Commission approved Pacific Rock's expansion, case LU10-0003, on June 18, 2026. The Center for Biological Diversity appealed, arguing in a June 29 release that the approval violated California's environmental review law and that the expansion would block mountain lion movement. The Ventura County Star covered the appeal in July.
The night before the hearing, the Center's attorney Evan Levy said in an Oct. 16 media advisory that local wildlife and wildflowers would take
"a massive and permanent hit"
if the Board allowed the expansion.
The Board took the item as Item 45 on Oct. 20. Kelly Long made the motion to approve and Janice Parvin seconded it. Matt LaVere, Kelly Long, Janice Parvin and Jeff Gorell voted yes, and Vianey Lopez voted no. The staff recommendation the Board adopted denied the appeal in full.
The approved conditions are where the numbers are. For several items, the gap between what was requested and what was approved matters more than the headline:
| What the applicant sought | What the Board approved | |
|---|---|---|
| Permit area | Expansion to about 204 acres | 204.4 acres, with 172.8 acres for mining |
| Term | 60 more years | 60 years, expiring Oct. 20, 2086 |
| Mining and processing hours | No change from Monday–Saturday, 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. | Monday–Saturday, 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., excluding federal holidays |
| Truck and hauling hours | Seven days a week, 5:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., plus up to 60 days a year of 24-hour operation for public projects | Monday–Saturday, 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.; up to 4:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days, only on a written agency request, two weeks at a time |
| Daily truck cap | 120 one-way trips, or 60 truckloads, per operating day, the same as the previous permit |
The permit ceiling of 60 truckloads a day was already in place, and it doesn't describe how many trucks are hauling to Malibu right now. No public count of this fall's trucks has been released.
The Planning Commission also added a rule for the quarry's closest neighbor. Before any blasting, the operator must give the adjacent Conejo Mountain Cemetery at least seven days' notice. Conejo Mountain Memorial Park is the cemetery next to the quarry, and many Camarillo and Conejo Valley families have relatives buried there.
How Evening Trucks Could Come Back
This fall's 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. hauling started almost a month before the Board vote, so it wasn't approved under the conditions adopted Oct. 20. What those conditions do is spell out, in writing, how longer hauling hours can happen from now on. Under Condition 2:
- A state, local or federal agency puts a formal request on its own letterhead stating that longer hours are needed for its operations.
- Pacific Rock submits that letter to the Ventura County Planning Director.
- If the Director approves, water trucks, fueling, and haul trucks arriving and leaving can run as late as 4:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., any day of the week.
- The approval lasts two weeks at most. Going longer takes a separate request from the same agency and another approval from the Director.
Even with that approval, digging and processing stay limited to Monday through Saturday, 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. In practice, an emergency can bring back the trucks, but it can't bring back nighttime blasting or crushing.
Both the applicant and the advocates had pushed on hours. The county's own description of the request included Sunday load-out, longer load-out hours and limited 24-hour operation for up to 60 days a year. The permit that passed allows none of those as routine. A truck on Las Posas Road after 4 p.m. now has to trace back to an agency letter and a two-week approval.
Between Now and December 15
As this post goes up, the Malibu hauling is about six weeks old, with the city expecting it to end in roughly six more. Dec. 15 is the city's expected end date, not a firm deadline. Malibu's coastal repairs have already changed plans once this season after waves hit the Tuna Beach site. Until then, trucks can be on Pleasant Valley Road, Lewis and Hueneme roads, and Las Posas Road from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day except Sunday.
The city's notice lists one contact for questions about the truck traffic: John Novi, Planning Manager at the Ventura County Planning Division, 805-654-2462, [email protected].
If you live along one of these routes and you're wondering how the quarry and its truck schedule will look to a buyer down the road, I'm glad to talk through what I see in the neighborhoods along Pleasant Valley, Lewis and Las Posas roads. Rick Pena has been watching this corner of Camarillo his whole life. Let's Connect.
