Simi Valley Leaders Planning a Street ‘Adoption’ Program : Government: The maintenance project, modeled on state highway effort, could save up to $400,000 annually.

Taking a cue from the state’s Adopt-a-Highway program, Simi Valley leaders are putting together a plan to let individuals and businesses help pay the cost of keeping major city streets clean and green.

The local program, called Adopt a City Landscape Area, has the potential to save up to $400,000 a year in costs now incurred by the city, Simi Valley officials say.

City crews would still sweep the streets and trim the grass, but a donor would pay for the work and receive credit on a roadside sign.

The City Council approved the concept earlier this week. But local leaders say the tough part--deciding exactly how the program will work--is still ahead.

The council has instructed city staff members to assemble a seven-person committee of public officials and private leaders to figure out how much an “adoption” should cost. The group will also recommend to the council how to dole out the best sites and suggest what the roadside credit signs should look like.

“I’m sure the committee will have a lot to look at,” said Nancy Bender, executive director of the Simi Valley Chamber of Commerce, which will provide two business leaders for the advisory panel.

“The concept sounds really good,” she said. “It gives businesses a little more advertising and an opportunity to assume responsibility for a clean city.”

But Bender also said the city must be careful in setting up the program. For instance, she said local merchants should not be pressured to participate.

Also, Bender said, the city should keep the cost down so that small businesses as well as large corporations can afford to sponsor a street.

The chamber administrator cautioned that the city adoption program will have to compete against dozens of other requests for donations aimed at local merchants.

“That’s something that always concerns me because businesses are inundated with that sort of thing,” Bender said.

In establishing a landscaping adoption program, the city is following an ever-widening trend of public institutions seeking help from private citizens and corporate sponsors.

So far in Ventura County, public officials have been exploring similar adoption programs to help with maintaining schools, libraries, parks, bike paths, trails and even graffiti-free walls.

Ronald C. Coons, Simi Valley’s public works director, said he’s unaware of any other community that has tried it. “I think it’s an attractive program,” he said. “It could have a good benefit for the city.”

But Coons said he hopes the program will require little day-to-day management because that would cut into the money collected in donations.

The landscaping adoption plan was proposed in June by Councilwoman Barbara Williamson.

After Coons presented a report on the idea Monday, the council instructed him to form the advisory panel.

Coons said the committee should begin meeting in about a month. He said he hopes to return to the council in about two months for approval of the program’s rules and a proposed launch date.

The city project will be modeled after the California Department of Transportation’s popular Adopt-a-Highway program.

In that effort, individuals, companies or nonprofit groups agree to clean up litter along two-mile stretches of road, then are recognized for their contribution on a sign.

The sponsors either pick up trash themselves or hire a contractor, freeing Caltrans workers for more complex maintenance tasks, Caltrans spokeswoman Pat Reid said.

The state program requires sponsors to sign an agreement releasing Caltrans from liability in connection with the cleanup. Under the Simi Valley plan, city crews would continue to maintain the streets and parkways, so no such release would be needed, city officials said.

Under its program, the state has issued almost 3,200 adoption permits for roads throughout California. Since the project began in 1989, Caltrans estimates that volunteers and cleanup sponsors have contributed the equivalent of $25 million worth of labor, Reid said.