Once-Controversial Development to Be Finished After 27 Years

Back in the early 1980s, when your blogger was a cub reporter for the late, lamented Simi Valley Enterprise, the City Council spent hours upon hours wrestling with whether to allow 47 acres south of Royal Avenue and Corto Street in the southern part of town to be developed. Nearby residents were aghast that open space they considered their birthright would be developed – and worse, that two-story homes would be built adjacent to an existing neighborhood of one-story houses.

But after several years of debate and many redrawn plans, in late 1984 the council adopted a specific plan for the parcel that allowed 208 single-family homes to be built. The plan also stated that only 26 units would be allowed on the 5 acres at the southeast corner of the two streets, and that those homes could only be built after the first three phases of the project were completed.

Flash forward through the presidencies of Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, Bush II and Obama. The rest of the project was built years ago, but now, 27 years after that specific plan was adopted, it appears construction will soon begin on the last section of the development.

Tuesday, the council is expected to add Tri Pointe Homes LLC to its managed growth permit allocation system, meaning the company should be able to soon start developing the site and ultimately be awarded permits to build 43 Mission-style homes with zero lot lines. Ironically, given the protests about density a quarter-century ago, most neighbors seem to like the design.

The Simi Valley Acorn reported last year that at the Planning Commission hearing:

Jerry Auerbach, who lives near the site and travels Corto Street daily, said he looks forward to such a “unique” development.

“There’s a feeling of community, of safety, the way that the walkways are set up, the way that the paseo kind of goes around,” he said. “It kind of gives you that warm feeling that the community is going to be spending time together, the kids are going to be out there playing together.”

Real estate broker Eric Bordo, who lives nearby, agreed.

“I look at the community as a completion of the whole neighborhood,” Bordo said, adding that the development will increase property values and bring money into the city during a time when few developers are building.

There were a number of holdups over the years, including flooding concerns, and it took time for some of those problems to be resolved. But local resident Tamara Plotkin pretty much summed up the feeling of the neighborhood:

“I think that empty lot is an eyesore and it’s really sad to see it lingering there, accumulating debris. I think it would be really good to develop this area.”