As Resentment Builds, Some 2nd Thoughts on the Grinch of Simi Valley

On the surface, it sounds like another version of the Grinch trying to steal Christmas. It certainly has all the ingredients:

A city, after more than a decade of talking about it, finally chooses a site for a youth center and gets the commitment of a respected youth organization to run it. Then, just as groundbreaking is set to begin, a greedy ol’ developer decides to stop it.

The developer files a lawsuit. An attorney for the youth organization calls him “greedy” and “mean-spirited.” And a judge rules with the city and denies the developer’s efforts to halt the construction.

End of story? Not if the so-called Grinch in this story--which takes place not in a Dr. Seuss book but in Simi Valley--can help it.

Lloyd Green, a partner in CPC Enterprises, which owns the three-story office complex immediately south of the proposed site near Alamo Street and Lemon Drive, says his side of the story has been twisted.

He says he wrongfully has been portrayed as someone with more interest in his bank account than bored-out-of-their-gourds kids and teen-agers.

That his concerns about the proposed youth center, which would be run by the Simi Valley Boys & Girls Club, have been virtually disregarded.

“We’re being made out to look as if we hate kids,” said Green, who plans to file an appeal of the August court ruling.

“We are completely in favor of the center and we want it. But we just want it in a way that won’t impact the surrounding area. If (the proposed building) were not offensive to the eye, we would not fight it.”

Green, who voiced his concerns to the Planning Commission in March, said the current design of the youth center is “prison-like” and its color scheme would clash with his carefully designed, $7.5-million office building. Years ago, he added, he was told that tennis courts would be built on the land. Now, the top part of the proposed center would block the mountain view of his tenants.

“One doesn’t violently and flagrantly impose a total blocking of a structure that is oriented toward . . . the design concept,” Green told the commission.

But Linda White, vice president of operations with the Boys & Girls Club, doesn’t quite buy Green’s position. “He’s just doing this to delay it,” White said.

In the meantime, as litigation drags on, White said the club is spending money on legal services “we could be spending on basketballs.”

Actually, Robert O. Huber, the club’s attorney, is providing his services free of charge. Huber, who also is president of the Simi Valley Rotary Club and a former City Council member, said the pro bono decision was easy.

“I’ve been here for 20 years and it’s always been said we need a place for our young people to gather and do constructive things,” he said. “Now we are this close to it, and this developer is trying to stop it. He doesn’t even live here. He just takes his money.”

It’s understandable that both sides feel passionately about the subject. And it’s also easy to see why both sides are so intent on getting their way.

The city of Simi Valley has been trying for years to get a youth center off the ground. It rightly sees that a facility with such things as a weight room, a room with pool tables and video games, a place that offers classes in photography and drama and stays open late on weekends for dances, would be a tremendous asset to the community.

But there also is the very real issue of Green’s office building and his tenants. Visitors to his building may not know that he held numerous meetings with neighbors to incorporate their concerns into its design--and that years ago, many of them showed up at a City Council meeting to support him.

It’s difficult not to be impressed with the obvious care that was taken in the construction of his building.

Somehow, though, Green’s concerns--as well as those raised by other community members--seem to have been disregarded in the name of a good cause.

That sentiment was expressed quite clearly by Planning Commission member Ron Lenfield at the March meeting, when he called the building’s current design “stark and austere” and said: “If I did not believe that this wouldn’t be a tremendous asset to this community, I would probably be averse to its location.”

Commission member Barbara Williamson echoed that attitude and added, “We are probably giving this a little bit more leeway than we would other projects that come before us because we all see the need for it.”

In all fairness, that doesn’t seem quite right. And we all know where the road paved with good intentions leads to. Becca Merrell, the executive director of the Simi Valley Boys & Girls Club, has said repeatedly, “We want to be good neighbors,” which will be good news to a lot of homeowners who will feel the impact of increased noise and traffic in the area.

But right now, there’s one neighbor in particular in need of some consideration.

From where I sit, he doesn’t look anything like the Grinch.