Corriganville Park Agency May Disband

The agency formed to spearhead the revival of Corriganville Park will likely disband, because city officials want the job done by the local park district.

At least four of the five members of the Rancho Simi Open Space Conservation Agency support the plan as a way to eliminate bureaucracy that they say has slowed plans to reopen the 188-acre park.

“I believe the city should participate in getting the park open,” said City Councilman Bill Davis, a member of the conservation agency board. “[Then] the city should step aside.”

The board is scheduled to discuss the matter at 6 p.m. Wednesday.

Plans call for the Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District to assume full control of Corriganville Park when it reopens for campers and hikers by late September.

Because the conservation agency meets only four times a year, even minor decisions involving the planned revival of the former movie lot and campground, such as issuing use permits, would be delayed. By comparison, the park district meets biweekly.

The conservation agency bought Corriganville Park in 1988 for $1.7 million from Griffin Homes, a Calabasas-based developer.

The agency has already secured $106,000 to regrade, open and maintain the park. It hopes to ultimately persuade Hollywood studios to help finance the resurrection of the park’s Old West-style buildings that made the site a popular filming location for more than 3,000 movies and hundreds of television episodes from 1937-1966. All of the buildings have since been destroyed by fire.

Barbara Williamson, the board’s other council member, supports eliminating the agency, saying it is no longer appropriate for the city to be part owner of Corriganville Park.

Park district officials estimate they will have to spend only about $45,000 annually from the district’s $7.3-million budget to maintain the park once they assume control.

“A lot of it is natural terrain--hills, rocks and trails,” said Donald Funk, a park district representative to the conservation agency, who supports disbandment.

“There’s not a lot of grass. You don’t have to worry about mowing and fertilizing and irrigating--all the things we do to regular parks.”