SIMI VALLEY : City Renews Support of Development Edict
Extending its pledge to limit residential building to no more than 500 homes per year, the Simi Valley City Council voted unanimously Monday night to renew the city’s slow-growth ordinance.
About a dozen people attended the public hearing on the issue.
While the council gave approval to the managed growth concept Monday, it will be voters who decide the issue when it appears on the March ballot.
The first slow-growth ordinance was enacted in 1986 and was designed to ensure adequate housing for seniors and lower-income people while avoiding straining the city’s infrastructure with too much building.
In a sense, the ordinance has been even more successful than city officials might have planned. The city’s population was expected to hit 110,000 by 1996 but it is only 104,000 now.
Some developers have complained that the ordinance cramped competition that would have kept housing costs down.
City planners estimate that Simi Valley’s sewer and drainage system can handle another 10,000 homes without expansion.
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