Simi Development Director Resigns Over Approval of Project Changes

The director of Simi Valley’s Community Development Department has resigned following harsh criticism from city officials of the department’s apparently improper approval of major modifications for development projects.

Jim Arnold, 56, abruptly resigned Tuesday after a Monday night City Council meeting during which he was also rebuked by council members for not providing detailed reports on zoning changes for which the department had recommended approval.

Arnold, who had been director of the department since December, 1983, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

In his letter of resignation, effective immediately, he praised fellow staff members and said, “The timing is right for me to now move toward higher goals.”

No Comment

City Manager Lin Koester would not discuss the matter Wednesday. His only comment came in a written statement of appreciation for Arnold’s more than two years of “devoting a significant amount of personal time . . . to get the job done.”

Council members were more willing to discuss the matter.

During their meeting last week, council members complained openly that the department had approved the conversion of a skating rink into 17 shops without notifying the council. Although the department had the authority to approve the project, council members felt they should have been informed.

The skating rink project had been approved in November by Arnold’s department, but council members said they had learned of it only recently when a resident complained about the project. Residents within 300 feet of the rink were notified of a public meeting sponsored by the department.

Other Instances Cited

Council members cited other instances in which they believe the department had either overstepped its bounds in making changes on projects or had neglected to keep them informed.

Most of those changes were made under the so-called “staff approval policy,” which allows department staff to approve certain routine plans or modifications without permission of the Planning Commission or council.

The staff approval policy was developed to relieve the two governing bodies from conducting public hearings on minor matters.

Councilwoman Ann Rock said in an interview Wednesday that the policy was “never intended to mean that the governing body, be it the City Council or the Planning Commission, shouldn’t know what is happening in those areas.”

Didn’t Follow Plan

The council has also criticized the department’s approval of project designs that did not follow policies spelled out in detailed neighborhood plans.

For example, the department last year permitted a furniture manufacturing plant on the outskirts of the city to be painted white. Policy calls for buildings in that area to be painted in earth tones to match the surrounding rocky terrain. The city was forced to pay for the cost of the repainting because of the department’s approval, according to Councilman Greg Stratton.

Stratton, in an interview Wednesday, said the department had failed to inform the developer of a Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. store that its design, which called for the store’s bay doors to face the street, did not conform to council policy. Last week, the council denied the project on the basis of its design but first criticized the department for failing to inform the developer of the problem.

Rock said the staff approval policy had obviously backfired and was being reviewed.

‘Garbled Message’

“It’s not to say we would not have concurred with what was approved,” Rock said. “But it is to say that, if you were not aware of what was approved, you could not answer questions about those projects intelligently.”

Said Stratton: “The problem has been getting council policy down to the department and coming back with results. But a lot of things seemed to be garbled in the message, and that was supposed to be the job of the director, to straighten it out.

“In the first part of his tenure, he grabbed hold of the reins and straightened out a lot of things in his department,” Stratton said of Arnold. “The only thing I can think of that led to the problem is that the workload had increased. It was a matter of spreading the department too thin.”

No interim director has yet been named.