Simi Given Permission to Annex Project Site : Development: A county panel approves adding 2,700 acres to the city as a step toward building houses and golf courses.

In a key approval for a massive new housing proposal, a local planning agency on Wednesday gave Simi Valley permission to annex the 2,700-acre Whiteface project area north of the city.

Two Los Angeles developers have proposed the construction of almost 1,500 single-family detached houses and three golf courses on the land, between Tapo Canyon and Erringer roads. The Simi Valley City Council approved preliminary plans for the project earlier this year, despite environmentalists’ objections that it would disrupt wildlife in the area.

The City Council is expected to vote on annexing the property within the next few months.

Ventura County Supervisor Maria VanderKolk, a member of the county’s Local Agency Formation Commission, cast the lone vote against the annexation plan. She said the project would contribute to urban sprawl.

County Supervisor John Flynn, another LAFCO member, said he reluctantly seconded a motion to adjust Simi Valley’s sphere of influence to include the Whiteface property and to allow the land to be annexed by the city.

“LAFCO doesn’t deal with whether projects are good or bad,” Flynn said. But, he added, “it seemed like an awful lot of land” to be added to Simi Valley’s boundaries.

Flynn joined VanderKolk in asking that LAFCO consider a dramatic policy change for future annexations.

The supervisors said Ventura County cities that want to annex large areas should be forced to return an equal amount of undeveloped land to the county as open space.

Flynn said this policy shift, to be discussed at next month’s LAFCO meeting, would help curb urban sprawl and lead to better planning among the county’s 10 cities. He said this strategy was used about five years ago, when Oxnard was forced to give land back to the county at the time it annexed other acreage.

The supervisor said he allowed the Whiteface project to proceed because he did not believe that a major policy change should be made in the midst of considering an annexation application.

The Whiteface development plan, submitted by Los Angeles developers Lowe Enterprises and Hermes Development International, was endorsed unanimously by the Simi Valley City Council in February after a three-hour public hearing. Several environmentalists urged the council to reject the project or revise it to reduce the grading of hillsides and the disruption of a wildlife corridor used by rabbits, deer and bobcats.

The development is proposed for the Dry, Sand and Tapo canyons next to the 2,230-foot Whiteface Mountain, which is visible throughout the city. Under the development plan, more than 1,000 acres would be preserved as parkland.

On portions of the remaining 1,700 acres, the developers plan to build 1,128 houses in a planned senior-citizen community and 364 large private houses. An environmental review found that the project will create air pollution and traffic, but Simi Valley officials said they were satisfied that the developer would take steps to reduce these problems.

Council members said they were pleased that the project would provide housing for Simi Valley’s older residents.

“It will be a good addition to our housing mix,” Mayor Greg Stratton said at the time.