SIMI VALLEY : Planners to Consider Movie Ranch Permit

The Simi Valley Planning Commission tonight will consider a permit to develop the former Corriganville movie ranch on the city’s east end into a 204-acre community park.

The panel was expected to approve the permit at its regular meeting two weeks ago, but two of the three planning commissioners present at the Aug. 4 hearing raised concerns about added traffic and noise from the park.

The commissioners originally called for the public hearing to be continued to Sept. 1, but the questions from Commissioners Robert Swoish and Dave McCormick have been addressed, said Wolf Ascher, deputy director of planning.

Noise from special events, such as movie filming or entertainment, would be controlled through special use permits that would be issued on a case-by-case basis, officials said. Traffic would be routed away from neighboring residential areas with gates, officials said.

“From what I’ve seen (the staff report) addresses the concerns of most of the commissioners,” McCormick said.

Construction would be at least two years off even if a permit is granted tonight to the Rancho Simi Open Space Conservation Agency, a joint city-park district panel overseeing the park’s development.

Park officials do not have the $4.3 million needed to build Corriganville Park, but a permit would allow them to begin seeking state and federal grants to get started, officials said.

Sets from the former movie ranch were used to film scenes in the television series “Gunsmoke” and Western movies in the 1940s and 1950s. Fire destroyed the sets in 1970. A private fund-raising group is trying to raise the money needed to reconstruct the building facades.