Council Backs Development Below Reservoir

With studies showing that the Bard Reservoir should be safe enough to allow development down the hill, the Simi Valley City Council asked city staff Monday night to clear the way for building.

The council voted unanimously to order development staff to draft an amendment to the General Plan that would allow development around the intersection of Madera Road and Royal Avenue.

The reservoir holds up to 11,000 acre-feet--or nearly 360 million gallons--of water with an earthen dam just north of the Wood Ranch housing development.

Right now, the only things directly downstream from the dam are the Wood Ranch Golf Course and a swath of land 1,000 to 2,000 feet wide that has been restricted for development by the General Plan.

In 1988, the City Council passed a policy stating: “New development shall be strongly discouraged within dam failure inundation areas, except for agricultural, recreational and roadway uses that are consistent with public safety.”

But late in 1994, the City Council approved an environmental impact report on a development plan for the intersection of Madera Road and Royal Avenue. The report outlines the risk of the dam bursting because of earthquake or other failure.

After studying the flood potential of the Bard Reservoir dam, city staff concluded that Simi Valley’s 1985 dam failure plan for evacuation should protect residents of any future development in the area.

Staff also said in a report to the council last week that the dam is solid enough to withstand a magnitude 7 earthquake centered on the Santa Rosa-Simi fault system, a 26-inch rainfall in 72 hours, and several other worst-case scenarios.

Assistant Planner Rob Bruce said that a catastrophic failure would generate a wall of water 10 to 40 feet high sweeping down at 15 mph. But he pointed to the staff report, saying the dam was built to withstand disasters worse than anything anticipated.

Councilman Paul Miller said he worried that the engineer’s report backing the staff’s findings is “one firm’s opinion and . . . there are a lot of opinions out there. My concern is that this would be a gamble on our part if we were to make such a change.”

Councilwoman Barbara Williamson said: “The way these things are constructed, short of an atomic bomb falling on it, I don’t see that thing giving way.”