Council Endorses 220-Acre Greenbelt Addition

Moving to expand a barrier against urban sprawl in eastern Ventura County, the Simi Valley City Council on Monday recommended the Board of Supervisors add 220 acres of hilly, unspoiled farmland to the Tierra Rejada Valley greenbelt at the city’s western edge.

The council voted 5 to 0 to back a county plan to add the land to the 2,200-acre greenbelt, which separates Simi Valley, Moorpark and Thousand Oaks.

Developers have agreed to donate the parcel to the Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District--and ultimately to the cause of preserving a green buffer zone between the creeping subdivisions of the cities that surround it.

The grant also includes historic Mt. McCoy, a distinctive peak that Spanish missionaries are believed to have topped with a cross some time around the settling of El Rancho Simi. A Sunday school class erected a new cross there in 1921 that has served as a local landmark for decades.

But the greenbelt grant carries a price.

It is part of a larger project that the supervisors approved in April allowing Norfolk Ventura Properties to build six luxury homes on 60 acres of land inside the greenbelt--just south of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

The Board of Supervisors approved that plan over the objections of the three cities that set up the greenbelt in the first place--Simi Valley, Moorpark and Thousand Oaks.

And the board expects to vote on the 220-acre greenbelt addition within a month--if the three cities approve it. Moorpark’s City Council plans to take up the issue Wednesday, and Thousand Oaks planners are still mulling the proposal before making a recommendation to their council.

On Monday night, the council passed a resolution backing the county’s plan, with little fanfare or argument.

“I think from Simi’s standpoint, we felt that this is a pretty good trade,” said Mayor Greg Stratton. “I would strongly recommend it.”

Councilwoman Sandi Webb urged her colleagues to ensure that the parcel remain within Simi Valley’s sphere of influence. “We don’t want to give it to the county, because then they gain control over zoning,” Webb said.

But environmentalists warn that the county, by allowing the six houses near the Reagan library, is chipping away at east Ventura County’s open space and sending the wrong message.

“This sends a signal to city governments that these agreements and principles can be breached by cities too,” said Neal A. Moyer, president of the Environmental Coalition of Ventura County.

“I grew up in Orange County, and we can do the same thing in Ventura County, and in 20 years, people won’t know the difference,” Moyer said. “What separates Ventura County from other counties in Southern California is the cities are separate and distinct, and for a long time have held the line on piecemeal development of the open spaces. . . . I think that’s something the people in Ventura County value.”

Moyer scoffed at the idea that Norfolk Ventura Properties is giving up anything by signing away development rights on the 220 acres. Much of it is too steep to be developed under Simi Valley building codes anyway, he said.

Supervisor Judy Mikels disagrees.

“I think people have some misconception about what the greenbelt is,” she said. “If you read [the greenbelt agreement], there are a lot of uses allowed. It wasn’t meant to keep [the greenbelt] as public open space forever, it was merely meant to keep it to low-intensity, low-density use.”

The six proposed houses fit that model, she said.

The greenbelt addition would benefit Simi Valley by preserving Mt. McCoy and a network of hiking trails around it, she said.