Thousand Oaks Scraps Planned Road to Simi Valley

Trying to limit traffic in its northern neighborhoods, Thousand Oaks City Council members have decided to scrap a long-planned road through the hills to Simi Valley.

The unanimous vote on Tuesday night eliminated the proposed extension of Sunset Hills Boulevard from the city’s General Plan. The proposed road through the Simi Hills has been on Thousand Oaks’ books since the General Plan was adopted in 1970.

Homeowners with houses on Sunset Hills Boulevard had urged the council to eliminate a plan that calls for a four-lane thoroughfare to Wood Ranch in Simi Valley. They said the road extension would draw more cars onto residential streets, increasing traffic as much as 20 times.

“It’s like ‘Field of Dreams.’ If you build it, they will come,” Thousand Oaks resident Lawrence Weiss said. “And if you build the street, the traffic will come.”

But the council’s decision was scorned by Simi Valley officials as a shortsighted move that would benefit only a small group of Thousand Oaks homeowners. They questioned the adequacy of an environmental report used to justify the road’s elimination.

Simi Valley has 30 days to file a legal challenge to the report.

Thousand Oaks has argued for years that the need to extend Sunset Hills Boulevard has diminished since the General Plan was drafted more than two decades ago.

In the 1970s, planners had projected that the city’s ultimate population would reach about 180,000 to 200,000. Because of changes in the city’s growth patterns, the population is only expected to reach 137,000, planners said. About 104,000 people now live in Thousand Oaks.

Council members say they do not want to destroy environmentally sensitive hills if the road is unnecessary.

“I don’t believe the extension has any benefit to our city,” Councilman Frank Schillo said.

Simi Valley officials, however, say the road would have been the primary access between the Sunset Hills neighborhood of Thousand Oaks and the Wood Ranch area of Simi Valley, a planned development of 4,000 residences.

Most of the 2,400 existing houses in Wood Ranch were approved with the assurance that Sunset Hills Boulevard would ultimately be extended, Simi Valley Mayor Greg Stratton said.

Stratton proposed delaying a decision until a connection between California 23 and the Simi Valley Freeway is completed next year. But it was quickly rejected by the council.

Just before the vote, Stratton warned that Thousand Oaks could be liable for $2 million in road widening and other street improvements that Simi Valley would have to make if the road is not built. Stratton is a resident of the Wood Ranch development.

On Wednesday, Stratton said he was disappointed in Thousand Oaks’ decision to eliminate the road.

“Thousand Oaks has always been involved in regional affairs and now they’re turning 180 degrees and becoming parochial,” he said. “It’s an election year, and I think that somehow has clouded their judgment.”

The neighbors most vocal about the increase in traffic live either on or near Sunset Hills Boulevard, west of California 23.

The single-family residences have some of the most commanding views of the city, with sweeping vistas of both the Conejo and Tierra Rejada valleys. Homeowners fear that the road would have become a speedway.

“I think the $2 million the mayor cited is . . . peanuts compared to the depreciation of property values if Sunset Hills road goes through,” Lawrence Rennie said.

Some Thousand Oaks residents whose houses are on or near Olsen Road supported Simi Valley’s request for a delay. Olsen Road is the only surface street that now links the communities.

“We all live in that area,” resident Dave Rives said. “We should all be willing to share in the traffic of the future.”