SIMI VALLEY : Proposed Housing Project Rejected
A committee of Simi Valley city officials and school board members has voted down a proposal to build 134 single-family houses on surplus school land across the street from Simi Valley City Hall.
City and Simi Valley Unified School District representatives said they rejected the project at a meeting Monday because it does not include senior citizen housing and therefore is inconsistent with the city’s General Plan. The development was planned for a 36-acre site on the northeast corner of Tapo Canyon Road and Alamo Street.
Two private developers, working with the school district, proposed the housing tract in July, three months after the City Council voted down a plan to build a 26-acre shopping center and a smaller housing project on the land.
The acreage was purchased as a third high school site in the 1960s, but district officials said it is no longer needed for that purpose.
District officials supported the shopping center plan, saying it would raise up to $39 million for local schools. But council members and nearby residents complained that it would create traffic and noise problems.
Board of Education member Judy Barry said school leaders were concerned that the revised plan, involving only houses, would not generate as much money for education as the shopping center would have.
Barry said school officials and the developers will discuss other building options for the prime parcel.
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