Simi Council Will Amend General Plan to Add Jordan Ranch

The Simi Valley City Council has voted to authorize its staff to begin amending its General Plan to include Bob Hope’s 2,308-acre Jordan Ranch, located in an unincorporated area south of the city.

A General Plan amendment, which could take up to two years to complete, is necessary before the city can apply to annex Hope’s property, where a 750-house development and tournament golf course are planned.

Hope and Potomac Investment Associates, which has an option to buy the Jordan Ranch, have asked Simi Valley to annex the ranch property because of fears that the Ventura County Board of Supervisors would reject the proposed subdivision.

“Somebody needs to take a look at this project,” Mayor Greg Stratton said at the council meeting Monday night. “If nobody else is going to, then I think Simi Valley has an obligation to look at it.”

Councilman Glen McAdoo said the Hope proposal provided the city and the county with an opportunity to acquire and preserve thousands of acres of open space. If annexation and the Jordan Ranch development are approved, Hope has promised to sell and donate 5,700 acres in the Santa Monica and Santa Susana mountains to park agencies for a below-market $10 million.

The rest of the council agreed with McAdoo and so did the majority of the more than 20 speakers who commented on the issue during a two-hour public hearing. A few speakers, however, argued that the Jordan Ranch project would have regionwide effects on air quality and traffic and that its fate should be decided by the County Board of Supervisors.

Council members admitted that there are a number of obstacles that may ultimately prevent annexation of Jordan Ranch. But they stressed that the decision to go forward with a General Plan amendment would help determine if annexation is worth pursuing. It would not commit the city to the proposal.

“Everyone agrees that there are a lot of questions that need to be answered and this is the best way to do it,” Stratton said.

Although she said she supported the city’s decision to pursue a General Plan amendment, Councilwoman Vicky Howard said she felt that there was little chance the Local Agency Formation Commission would allow the city to annex the Hope property.

Howard, who is a member of LAFCO, said the main reason the commission would probably reject the annexation proposal is that the Jordan Ranch subdivision does not follow Ventura County’s Guidelines for Orderly Development. The guidelines require development to be clustered in or near cities.

Howard said Simi Valley is separated from the ranch site by a mountain range that would make it difficult to provide some city services to the area.

But she said it is possible that those problems could be worked out and that the Hope proposal deserves further study.

Fred Maas, vice president of Potomac Investments, said he was pleased with the council’s action.

“We feel very good about this, and we’re ready to go forward,” Maas said, adding that he was not concerned about Howard’s comments on annexation.

“There are so many things that make this offer an extraordinary one that we feel we stand a good chance before any reasonable body,” he said.

The city has asked LAFCO for an early ruling on the annexation proposal, and the panel is scheduled to hear the matter today. However, LAFCO Director Bob Braitman has said he will ask the commission to delay any decision until Nov. 21.