Simi Valley, Builder Go Partners on Park

A partnership of the city of Simi Valley and the local park district has approved payment of $1 million to a developer for 172 acres of the Hopetown property, to create a regional park.

Escrow on the 212-acre Hopetown parcel, at the eastern end of the city, closed Monday, completing developer Griffin Homes’ purchase of the land from comedian Bob Hope for $4.6 million, said Elaine Freeman, vice president of governmental affairs for Griffin Homes.

The developer, based in Calabasas, has had an option to buy the 212 acres, bounded on the north by the Simi Valley Freeway and on the east by the Ventura County line, since 1983. It plans to build 217 single-family homes on 40 acres fronting on Kuehner Drive.

Griffin agreed to sell the remaining 172 acres to the partnership of the city and the Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District.

In return for awarding the city and the park district a $1-million grant to buy the property, the state-financed Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy asked them to form a joint-powers authority to manage and hold title of it as a regional park.

Insurance Policy

The authority, the Rancho Simi Open Space Conservation Agency, will ensure that the city and the park district participate in advancing the project, said Jerry Gladden, general manager of the park district.

“I think it’s great, because everybody won. The people won because they have all that open space. The people in the area won because they got the single-family residences they wanted us to build, and we won because we get to go forward with the project,” Freeman said.

As part of the purchasing agreement, the joint authority agreed to waive $360,000 worth of parkland dedication fees that Griffin Homes ordinarily would have had to pay.

To complete the package, the five-member City Council voted unanimously Monday to approve other unspecified considerations that would be worth $400,000 to Griffin, said Simi Valley Mayor Greg Stratton.

Ownership of the 172 acres, appraised at $2.6 million, was transferred to the joint-powers authority Tuesday morning, Freeman said.

Hopetown, formerly named Corriganville after actor Raymond (Crash) Corrigan, was used as a backdrop for more than 3,500 Western films and television episodes until the early 1950s. The area has been closed to the public since 1962. It was bought by Hope in 1965, when it was renamed Hopetown.

Inviting Prospect

“It’s nice to have saved the property from development, but it will be even nicer when we get it open to the public,” Stratton said.

Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District planners estimate it will cost $1.8 million to develop the parkland for recreational use. The land is a wildlife corridor between the Santa Susana Mountains and the Santa Monica Mountains, said Gladden.