Simi Voters to Determine Fate of Wal-Mart Proposal : Government: Council hears critics of project, agrees to put issue on ballot.

After hearing a dozen residents criticize a proposed Wal-Mart store, the Simi Valley council decided Monday to let local voters determine in November whether the giant retail chain can go forward with building its discount outlet.

In a 4-1 vote, the council instructed city staff to prepare a binding Nov. 2 ballot measure focusing on a single issue: Should Simi Valley allow a Wal-Mart store to be constructed before a long-planned regional mall is developed.

“I think it has to be very simple, very straight-forward,” said Mayor Greg Stratton.

The exact wording of the ballot measure will be returned to the council for a final vote next Monday. Councilman Bill Davis cast the lone vote against the motion, saying the ballot measure should be merely advisory, giving the City Council final say in the matter.

Wal-Mart has paid an $84,000 deposit to the city to cover costs associated with the ballot measure. The company has until July 7 to tell the city whether it still wants to proceed with the ballot measure.

Marvin Banks, a Simi Valley resident who lives near the proposed store site, told the council a Wal-Mart would mar the scenic hillside and bring little benefit to the area. “I don’t like the way it smells,” he said of the project. “I don’t want a Wal-Mart.”

The Arkansas-based retailer wants to build a discount store on a 32-acre parcel north of the Simi Valley Freeway, just east of 1st Street. The city has reserved land just east of this site for a proposed regional mall that has been stalled by a downturn in the economy.

Through the ballot measure, Wal-Mart would ask voters to change a city planning rule that requires the mall to be built before any nearby stores, such as the proposed Wal-Mart.

Some opponents have asserted that a developer will be less likely to build the mall if the 151,000-square-foot discount store is already on one of the main roads leading to the shopping center.

Others critics have predicted that the Wal-Mart, with its low prices and large array of merchandise, will drive some small Simi Valley retailers out of business.

At Monday night’s meeting, the council deleted several provisions that Wal-Mart wanted to include in the ballot measure.

These provisions would have allowed Wal-Mart to adhere to less strict building rules concerning signs, parking, road widths, lights and drainage.

Prior to the meeting, Stratton suggested that Wal-Mart had put together a “shopping list” of technical concessions that might have been overlooked by most voters in November.

But John Newton, a real estate consultant who is working with Wal-Mart and the landowner, said the retailer was merely trying to speed up the city’s planning review by allowing voters to decide key design issues.

Newton warned that Wal-Mart might consider other sites in Moorpark and the Conejo Valley if the chain determines that community opposition in Simi Valley is too strong.

Even if the ballot measure is approved by voters, the Wal-Mart project would still have to undergo an environmental analysis, and the company would need a development permit from the Simi Valley Planning Commission, city officials said.