Council to Consider Proposal for Hillside Subdivision

The City Council is poised Monday to review an inch-thick proposal for construction of a 250-home subdivision on hilly land at Marr Ranch--and to hear from neighbors who oppose parts of the project.

The council will also consider annexing the 194-acre site, now outside city limits, so that the project can be linked to city services and comply with Ventura County’s guidelines for orderly development.

The 12-year battle between the developer and neighboring property owners over the scenic patch of land north of the Ronald Reagan Freeway in eastern Simi Valley could be nearing an end. But not before the council answers residents’ concerns about houses built on slopes too steep, oaks trees slated for removal and a neighborhood street pegged as an access road to the new development.

The Planning Commission last month recommended the City Council approve the environmental impact report, the tract plan for layout of the home lots and zoning changes that will allow the subdivision to be built.

But City Manager Mike Sedell appealed the decision so the council could review the entire project.

“If there is a change of zone it requires council action, if there is a development agreement it’s a council action,” explained Jim Lightfoot, the city’s principal planner. “Because of the policy implications, it’s important the City Council be able to take a look at the whole thing.”

The Planning Commission has already hammered out some concessions to the neighbors with developer Robert Friedman--changes that are reflected in the environmental impact report the council will consider Monday.

For instance, the commission agreed to create a landscape assessment district maintained by the city along the southern end of Marr Ranch, rather than rely on a homeowners association to groom the landscape.

That pleases a group of residents called Citizens for a Safe and Scenic Simi Valley, said Larry Fried, a member of the group’s executive board.

But the group disagrees with other parts of the plan, Fried said.

One sticking point is a plan to use narrow, steep Crazy Horse Drive as a secondary access road--Yosemite Avenue would be the primary access--to the subdivision.

Fried said his group wants to see the city press forward with plans to extend the wider Flanagan Drive through Marr Ranch to serve as an alternative route.

The group is also opposing the developer’s plans to build some homes on hills with slopes steeper than 20%--technically a violation of the city’s hillside ordinances.

The environmental report approved by the Planning Commission outlines ways the developer can tweak the site into compliance, such as installing an extra street to increase the amount of drainage from the hilly site.

But Fried said the Planning Commission erred in allowing the developer to build the homes on steep slopes at all. “They are claiming that by putting in the streets [legally] and creating lots next to the streets, they can therefore build homes on the lots,” he said. “We think that the Planning Commission’s findings for allowing both the streets and the lots were in error, so we are appealing.”

And Fried said that Citizens for a Safe and Scenic Simi Valley wants the developer to save seven valley oak trees, which are marked for removal to make way for roads, grading and other improvements.

The Planning Commission did not require Friedman to save the trees, but recommended he work with city planners to try to spare the trees by rerouting roads or changing grading plans nearby.

The City Council will meet at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall, 2929 Tapo Canyon Road.