SIMI VALLEY : Panel Backs Plan to Develop 38-Acre Site
A plan to develop more than 38 acres of vacant land across from the Simi Valley Civic Center was approved by the Planning Commission in a special meeting Thursday.
The developer, Irvine-based Lusk Co., has proposed developing two commercial parcels and one residential parcel at the southwest corner of Tapo Canyon Road and Alamo Street.
Lusk has been working on the project for four years.
The vote was 3 to 1, with Commissioner Michael Piper opposing the project. Chairman Robert Barrett was absent. Piper said the project’s benefits to the city do not outweigh its environmental drawbacks. Several residents also expressed concern about the project’s design and traffic congestion in the area.
The plan calls for shops, restaurants and other businesses on 18.3 acres of the land and 93 single-family houses on the remaining 20 acres.
The company’s original plan, which the City Council rejected in August, 1990, was to build 51 single-family houses, 41 townhouses, and 226,000 square feet of commercial and office space.
But council members, citing the development’s proximity to the Civic Center, said they were dissatisfied with the project’s design and criticized it as inconsistent with the city’s General Plan.
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