SIMI VALLEY : City OKs 2nd Corriganville Park Entrance

Simi Valley residents near the proposed Corriganville Park have persuaded the city to require a second entrance to the park to ease traffic congestion on their street.

Responding to concerns of residents who live on Smith Road, the main entrance to the planned 204-acre park, the City Council has agreed to require developers to open a second entrance at Sandalwood Drive.

Sandalwood Drive will be extended to the park’s western edge when a development of 200 homes known as Hope Town is built next to Corriganville Park.

During a public hearing before the council vote, Smith Road resident Julie Willingham urged the council to require the second entrance.

“We live out there because we want the seclusion,” Willingham said. “We’d like a little consideration.”

Once the site of a movie ranch and Wild West amusement park, the Corriganville property was purchased jointly in 1988 by the city, the Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy.

The council voted unanimously to mandate the second entrance, overturning a vote by the city’s Planning Commission last fall to require only the Smith Road entrance at the park, located at the southeast corner of the city.

“We need to do everything we can to give these people a break from a constant traffic flow past their homes,” Councilman Bill Davis said. “When the park is open, the Sandalwood gate ought to be open.”