SIMI VALLEY : Carnival Site May Give Way to Housing

A huge field where the Simi Valley Days carnival is celebrated could be the site of hundreds of residences and dozens of commercial buildings if the City Council approves a change in the city’s General Plan today.

The change is the first step toward eventual development of the 67-acre vacant lot at Madera Road and Los Angeles Avenue.

Four developers plan to build a post office, about 150 houses, 280 apartments and several commercial buildings. But no specific plans have yet been submitted.

Approval today would allow the developers to move beyond their conceptual plans. Construction could not begin until the council approved specific projects.

A giant project including commercial buildings, apartments, townhouses and single-family houses was first proposed for the site a decade ago, Mayor Greg Stratton said. But it never got off the ground.

“The Little League had to move out of there 14 years ago because they thought something was going to be built right away,” Stratton said. “Nothing ever got built, and the owner has since sold portions of the property. Now it’s just a question of not making the new owners go through another layer of paperwork to get their project built.”

Council approval would alter the General Plan only slightly and the area’s zoning would remain the same, City Planner Jim Lightfoot said.

Stratton said it would very likely take at least a year, probably longer, before anything is built.

“I just hope it doesn’t take another 14 years,” he said.