District Drops Price for Disputed Land

Dropping its original asking price, the Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District agreed to sell some land adjacent to the Simi Hills Golf Course to homeowners in the Texas Tract for $1.75 a square foot.

The land has been the subject of a heated dispute between homeowners and the park district for several months. Homeowners believed for years that the parcels sloping down to the golf course behind their houses belonged to them. The homeowners put up fences, planted shrubs and even built pools on the disputed land.

When the park district told homeowners last fall that the land did not belong to them and should be vacated immediately, residents were outraged. They cited all the improvements they had made to the plots--ranging in size from a few feet to more than 30 feet long--and demanded that the land be deeded to them.

The district said it could not legally give public land away, and offered to sell the land for $3 a square foot. At a meeting in February, residents said the cost was too high.

On Thursday night, the district agreed in a 4-1 vote, with director Jim Meredith dissenting, to sell some of the parcels for $1.75 a square foot. Only level land will be offered for sale; the district plans to keep the slope area as a buffer zone between the golf course and the residences. Spokesman Rick Johnson said the district will immediately begin to maintain the slope area, which is eroding in some places.

“The homeowners did present a good case,” Johnson said. “They have watched the course, they have taken care of the slope.”

Despite the drop in price, some homeowners are still unhappy with the situation.

“Nobody wants to pay anything for it,” homeowner Fred Haponstal said. “It sounds as if it is all settled, but as far as we are concerned, it isn’t.”

Haponstal said homeowners will meet this weekend to discuss other steps they could take in fighting the park district’s decision.