Vote Due on Ballot Bid by Wal-Mart : Simi Valley: Final wording will be determined after a public hearing Monday. The council will also decide whether a Nov. 2 vote will be binding or advisory.

The final wording of a ballot measure giving local voters a say in whether a Wal-Mart store will be built in Simi Valley is scheduled for a City Council vote Monday.

The council will discuss wording for the ballot measure after a public hearing that is expected to draw critics and supporters of a plan to build a large Wal-Mart store next to land that the city has reserved for a regional shopping mall.

The discount chain is eyeing a 32-acre parcel north of the Simi Valley Freeway just east of 1st Street. The city has reserved the land just east of the site for a regional mall, but the project has been stalled by the downturn in the economy.

Under present planning rules, the mall must be built before any adjacent stores, such as the proposed Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart wants voters to change the planning rules so that its store can be built first. But critics say the city would have trouble attracting a mall if that occurs.

In addition to the wording issue, the council must decide whether results of the Nov. 2 vote would be binding or merely advisory.

“I don’t have a problem with it being binding,” Mayor Greg Stratton said Friday, “but only as to the specific issue of phasing--when (the Wal-Mart) would be built with respect to the mall.”

The retail chain has given the city an $84,000 deposit to cover the cost of an election and submitted proposed wording for the ballot measure.

Wal-Mart’s wording would allow the store to be built before the mall. It would also change some city building restrictions that would otherwise apply to the store.

After analyzing Wal-Mart’s proposal, city staff members have urged the council to delete many of the relaxed rules--involving parking, lighting, drainage, signs and roads--that Wal-Mart wants voters to approve.

The mayor agrees with the staff’s recommendation.

“I think it’s a case of where you’re putting together a shopping list, and you might as well ask for anything you might ever want,” Stratton said.

He said the ballot measure should turn on one key issue.

“The arguments are all going to focus on timing,” he said. “All of the other issues would get lost in the background. I think that’s probably what they intended.”

Wal-Mart officials declined to comment on the ballot proposal.

But John Newton, a real estate consultant who is working with the landowner and the retail chain, said Wal-Mart merely wants to speed up the city’s planning review, which will be required even if the ballot measure passes.

“If (Wal-Mart) needs to go through that elaborate process, their feeling is: Why don’t we get as many things decided on the ballot as possible?” Newton said.

If the council trims Wal-Mart’s proposed ballot measure, Newton does not believe that it will cause the retail chain to abandon its building plan. “I don’t think it’s a deal-breaker,” the consultant said.

But Newton warned that Wal-Mart may consider sites in Moorpark or the Conejo Valley if it decides that opposition in Simi Valley is too widespread.

Critics of the proposed store, who call themselves the Coalition for Jobs, the Environment and Business, plan to attack the proposed ballot measure at Monday’s hearing.

Jean Ruecker, an environmental activist who co-chairs the coalition, wants the election postponed until voters hear more details about the size and design of the store Wal-Mart wants to build.

“Perhaps it’s too complex to be put on the ballot at this point,” she said. “We are definitely going to urge the city to get more information from Wal-Mart prior to setting an election date.”

Steve Frank, a public affairs consultant who is the coalition’s other leader, said the City Council should tell Wal-Mart to collect signatures if the chain wants to put a ballot measure before voters.

“I’m going to recommend that they treat Wal-Mart like they treat every other citizen in Simi Valley,” Frank said. “If they want to make a change, pass out the petitions. I have no problem with it being on the ballot if they have to abide by the same rules as everyone else in town.”