SIMI VALLEY : Price Club to Seek OK for New Store

Hoping to keep potential customers from leaving the city to shop, the Price Club will ask the Planning Commission tonight to approve plans for a 135,000-square-foot store on a 10-acre plot in Simi Valley.

“We’ve had a lot of sales tax leakage because we don’t have a store like this in Simi Valley,” said Laura Kuhn, a deputy city planner. “Hopefully, this will be a step toward bringing sales-tax revenue back to our city.”

The project, which would be the first of its kind in the city, faced little opposition when brought before the Neighborhood Council earlier this month.

“We found there to be a lot of support for this kind of store here,” said Mike Antoun, chairman of Neighborhood Council No. 1.

The store would be built in an industrial area where Madera Road meets the Simi Valley Freeway.

Although the neighborhood group did express concerns about potential traffic increases, members agreed to support the project as long it included a condition to monitor traffic for six months and correct problems that arose, Antoun said.

City staff also recommended that the Planning Commission approve the project, although it disagreed with the company over the design of the building.

Store officials pushed for a less expensive design that would leave structures on the building’s roof exposed, while the city asked that the building be constructed to mask air-conditioning and other units from view.

The public hearing will be held at 7 p.m. today at Simi Valley City Hall, 2929 Tapo Canyon Road.