Commission Weighs Lifting Restrictions on Some Residential Lots : Simi Valley: Planning panel’s consideration involves area of houses with commercial zoning where owners have been unable to repair or add on to structures.

City rules that have prevented some residents from repairing or adding on to their homes for years could be lifted under a proposal the Planning Commission is set to discuss tonight.

Current regulations prohibit homeowners whose property has been rezoned--for example, switched from residential to commercial use--from building additions to their homes. Nor can they repair those homes if a fire or other calamity destroys more than 50% of the structure.

But those restrictions would be lifted by a proposed series of Municipal Code amendments. The changes would let homeowners in rezoned areas repair damage covering more than 50% of a home’s floor or roof space. They could also build additions, short of adding new, separate structures to their property.

“We’re giving the rights back to the property owner,” said Dean Kunicki, commission chairman.

The previous restrictions, he said, placed an unfair burden on homeowners. “I think what we’re doing here is really putting things right,” he said.

The city may also eliminate a timetable for switching properties from residential to commercial use. Presently, homeowners in the affected areas must make the switch within a prescribed time, determined by the size of the house, that ranges from 10 to 60 years.

If the owners remain in the dwelling after the period ends, they could be forced from their homes. However, the city has never enforced the amortization period, City Planner Laura Kuhn said.

The Planning Commission will make a recommendation to the City Council on the proposed changes.

The changes affect more than 106 properties citywide, many of them near the intersection of Tapo Street and the Simi Valley Freeway. Over the years, the city changed the zoning of the properties, hoping in some cases to create a commercial zone.

The restrictions were designed to encourage the transition from residential to commercial development in the area, Kunicki said. The rules were also supposed to boost the price that residents could receive for their property, since the land could then be sold as commercial real estate.

That didn’t happen. Instead, affected homeowners found themselves unable to improve or sell their property, said Phyllis Anderson, owner of Sunshine Realty, who has had several clients in the area. “It created a blighted area,” she said.

One property owner lost more than 50% of his roof in a storm, she said. He couldn’t rebuild, so the house had to be demolished.

While Anderson welcomed the proposed changes, she said they did not go far enough. The homeowners, she said, need a clause to re-establish their previous residential zoning.

Without it, potential buyers for the affected homes will be unable to receive a loan. Lenders, she said, will not approve loans for homes on commercial property.

“I’d like to see something grandfathering in their rights,” she said.

Not all residents favor the changes. Leroy Johnson was not pleased when the city changed the zoning on his Adam Road property from residential to commercial in 1980. But he said he was concerned that, under the proposed changes, people could soon turn their garages into residential units, rent them out and further swell the city’s population, which he already considers too large.

“If we let people convert garages into residentials, what’s the population going to be?” he said.