Developers Want Protections Eased

Developers of a large industrial park proposed for canyons to the city’s northwest will tell city planners today they should relax hillside protection laws.

In the latest of what is expected to be many meetings between city officials and representatives of Unocal Land and Development Co., Unocal’s developers will present a range of proposals for the hillside.

Although the city created hillside protections in 1986, Unocal representatives argue that the city’s goal of creating jobs outweighs those protections. The plan calls for constructing industrial buildings on grades as steep as 20%, double the city’s limit of 10%.

Unocal developers have said they will address how the complex would look from the valley floor.

“We want to be sensitive, and we know the council wants to be sensitive,” said project consultant Elaine Freeman.

Along with the 1,900 homes proposed for other parts of the 2,430-acre property, Unocal representatives say the 615-acre industrial park could bring four jobs for every home, or 7,000 jobs over the estimated 17 years it would take to complete the project.

Councilman Paul Miller said he wants to see what developers have in mind before he votes to relax the hillside protections.

Members of Citizens for a Safe and Scenic Simi Valley, a group formed in 1991 to focus on quality-of-life issues, plan to sit in on the meeting. The organization, which has historically supported hillside protection, has not taken a position.

The city has had little industrial development in the hillside areas. Al Bandel, a resident since 1961, wants to keep it that way. He thinks the city should not make an exception when the jobs that would come are years away.

“I want to make sure that whatever I do, whenever I drive up by, the whole hillsides aren’t covered in industrial,” Bandel said.