Simi Valley Days Festival Will Move to New Site Next Year

The popular Simi Valley Days celebration--a 16-day tribute to Simi Valley’s Spanish colonial past--will be moving again next year, displaced from its popular Los Angeles Avenue site by the construction of about 100 homes.

Though the event will remain in its regular site when it is held Sept. 7-22, the committee in charge of the annual festival has recommended a 32-acre parcel of city-owned property near 1st Street as a suitable site for next year’s party.

Simi Valley Days has been held at Los Angeles Avenue and Madera Road for 10 of the last 16 years, said Simi Valley Councilwoman Sandi Webb. However, construction has begun on a residential project at the site, and next year’s celebration will have to be held elsewhere.

On Monday night, the City Council is set to consider six possible sites. The best site, according to the Simi Valley Days Ad Hoc Committee, is north of the Simi Valley Freeway at 1st Street.

“I think that site is absolutely perfect, and I have felt that way for some time,” Webb said.

The committee was looking for sites that could be improved, according to the city’s General Plan, and that could handle recreational, athletic and civic uses.

The list included 150 acres at Tapo Canyon Park, located at the north end of Tapo Canyon; a Tierra Rejada Park site north of the Simi Valley Drive-In, which was later rejected after a residential development was also approved there; and 330 acres in Alamos Canyon, west of the Simi Valley Landfill.

“I could see us putting the fairgrounds in Tapo Canyon once a development is in,” Webb said. “Access would be easier then.”

The ad hoc committee, established to find land suitable for a permanent fairgrounds, chose Tapo Canyon as the most likely site. The No. 2 choice was land at the west plateau of Alamos Canyon, which was later proposed as a cemetery site and removed as an event site.

However, because the Los Angeles Avenue site was still available, no action was taken to move it.

But the development of the Los Angeles Avenue site was imminent by late 1994, so in March 1995, committee members took up the issue of a site relocation once again.

After modifying its selection criteria, the committee chose the Regional Center site north of the Simi Valley Freeway as the best place to hold next year’s Simi Valley Days.

It will come with a price.

At least 12,000 cubic yards of earth will have to be moved, at a cost of as much as $5 per cubic yard, according to a committee report. In addition, a water line will be installed for use during the event, which could cost as much as $100,000. The city would pick up some or all of the tab, according to the report.