Simi Valley Rises From Low-Rent to High-Class

By Amanda Covarrubias

Aug. 17, 2003 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

In the 1960s, a military veteran could get into a tract home in Simi Valley for $1 down.

Today, a 10% down payment for a new home in the hills ringing the city would cost closer to $100,000.

It’s the evolution of the American Dream that once sent the average worker scurrying to affordable new subdivisions on the city’s fringe but now is beyond reach, except for affluent professionals.

Simi Valley is a prime example of what may be called the gentrification of the Southern California suburb. With good schools, close proximity to Los Angeles and a reputation as one of the safest cities in the country, it remains an attractive destination for those weary of big-city life.

The east Ventura County city helped set the pace for residential development in the area, adding in the last five years roughly 4,500 homes -- many in upscale subdivisions nestled in the city’s rolling hills. And more projects that would add hundreds of single-family homes are planned.

This new development and the infusion of wealth it brings is slowly changing the face of the city of 111,000. No other statistic more dramatically underscores the difference between the old and new Simi Valley than the median price of a resale home, $369,000, versus a newly built home, $850,000.

“There has been a shift in the overall character of Simi Valley over the last 20 years,” said urban planner Bill Fulton, president of Solimar Research Group in Ventura. “Simi in the ‘60s and ‘70s was working class, with people living in fairly modest homes on large lots. Now they’ve gone to higher-density, higher-end housing in master-planned communities.”

Other cities that have followed a similar pattern include Tustin, Orange and Anaheim in Orange County and Pomona in Los Angeles County, Fulton said.

Once derisively referred to as “Seamy Valley” and “Slimy Valley,” the city earned a reputation as a haven for cheap, low-quality housing in the 1960s. Residents’ frustration with shoddy workmanship led to the city’s incorporation in 1969.

“We were the stepchild of Ventura County,” said City Councilman Glen Becerra, who grew up on a ranch in the valley. “If [developers] didn’t want to build something in Ventura because of regulations, they would go build it in Simi Valley. That mind-set -- that we should take what we could get -- was a mind-set we had in the city for a long time. Even though city leaders wanted better, we settled in a lot of cases.”

But no longer. Officials actively encourage upscale development in the 32-square-mile valley that is encircled by rugged mountains once used as a backdrop for western movies and television shows, like “Gunsmoke” and “Little House on the Prairie.”

Next up is the Big Sky project, which will bring 729 single-family homes, 42 estate lots for custom homes and a public park into the rolling hills of Sand Canyon, north of the Ronald Reagan Freeway. Prices of some homes will approach $1 million, said Steve Seeman, regional manager for developer Shea Homes.

Much of the city’s new wealth is concentrated on the hillsides, where most residents are white affluent professionals, according to 2000 census figures. By comparison, the valley floor tends to be more racially and economically mixed.

For example, the median household income is $45,400 in one older and centrally located neighborhood, compared with $101,700 in the Bridle Path equestrian area and $121,300 in parts of the exclusive Wood Ranch subdivision.

“I’ve met people who never would have lived in Simi years ago and can’t afford to live here now,” Becerra said. “They’ve missed their opportunity.”

In Wood Ranch, luxury cars crowd the parking lot of the local elementary school as parents drop off their kids. Developer New Urban West has built thousands of homes in the hillside neighborhood, where membership at the country club runs $20,000 a year.

“Our goal was to attract people who currently live in Westlake and Thousand Oaks, which at the time were considered better locations,” said Tom Zanic, vice president of the Santa Monica-based developer. “We would build high-quality executive housing ... that would be just as good as those in Thousand Oaks and Westlake Village and would sell for a lower price. And that’s what we did.”

Some of the new money pouring into Simi Valley is spilling over into neighboring Moorpark, where developers are putting finishing touches on the new Country Club Estates project that will feature million-dollar homes on the fairway.

Also in the works is a development of upscale homes, including a 60-acre man-made lake stocked with fish, lined with sailboat docks and flanked by upscale restaurants. Along with 1,500 single-family houses, plans call for a 2,000-acre nature preserve, a 28-acre youth sports park, an amphitheater and a $20-million freeway interchange.

In Simi Valley and Moorpark combined, 66 single-family homes have sold for $1 million or more in the last five years, said Brian Troop, owner of Troop Realty in Simi Valley.

But even as Simi Valley becomes more affluent, its image as a traditional blue-collar community -- made famous as the site of the 1992 Rodney King beating trial -- remains.

When Lynn and Eric Luke decided to move to the city in 1998, their friends wondered why.

“I guess they thought it was lower-class or something,” said Lynn, a hair stylist who divides her time between working and staying home with the couple’s two young children.

The former San Fernando Valley residents were looking for safe neighborhoods, good schools and a spacious home when they decided to start a family. They found what they were looking for in Simi Valley.

“It’s really important to us to live somewhere family-oriented,” Lynn said.

Eric, an information technology specialist with Countrywide Financial, worked at the company’s headquarters in Calabasas but transferred to its Simi Valley office a month after they moved.

Suburban Appeal

Their five-bedroom home is in a new tract in Marr Ranch on the city’s east end, where houses range in price from $700,000 to $900,000. Everyone knows one another on the cul-de-sac. The families enjoy backyard barbecues and celebrate birthdays and holidays together.

When looking for a place to live, the Lukes said they rejected the Santa Clarita Valley in northern Los Angeles County because they thought it was too crowded and they were unimpressed with the public schools.

Simi Valley schoolchildren consistently score higher than students across the state on standardized tests.

Last year, 69% of fourth-graders in the Simi Valley Unified School District scored at or above the 50th percentile on the Stanford 9 in reading. Similarly, 74% scored at or above the 59th percentile in math.

But in a city where the population has grown by 18,000 in the last 10 years, schools are beginning to feel the squeeze, district officials said.

Traffic is also increasing. The Ronald Reagan Freeway, Simi Valley’s key artery to the San Fernando Valley and points beyond, moves relatively swiftly compared with the Ventura Freeway. But to ease early-morning congestion, transportation officials opened another eastbound lane this summer over the Santa Susana Pass.

Meanwhile, the city’s traffic patterns are changing. Census figures show that commute times improved slightly for Simi Valley residents over the last 10 years, largely because of the city’s own economic progress.

“I think the biggest change we’ve seen is [that] there are now jobs and shopping in town,” said former Mayor Greg Stratton. “People still have to commute out of town to go to work, but people are coming the other way now on the freeway.”

Job Growth

The number of local jobs rose from 29,858 in 1997 to 37,500 last year, said Assistant City Manager Laura Magelnicki. Countrywide Financial, with 5,600 workers, is the largest employer in town. It opened its Simi Valley office in 1993, after scouring the Southern California real estate market for a suitable location.

“It was a bedroom community to the San Fernando Valley and still is,” said Patrick Benton, vice president of administration. “But we have changed that landscape ... providing jobs right here in Simi Valley.”

Plans for a new regional mall geared toward the upscale shopper are being finalized. Developers plan to build an 800,000-square-foot, open-air shopping center in the city’s west end that will be similar in style to the Promenade in Westlake Village.

A Borders Books and Music is also going up across from City Hall. A Kohl’s department store recently opened nearby. And there are now three Starbucks.

Not everyone is impressed with the city’s transformation from rural outpost to suburban enclave. Hit with a barrage of public protests, the City Council recently voted to require a new environmental impact report for a 90-unit hillside condominium complex planned for the east end.

Bus driver Larry Phillips, who moved to town from the San Fernando Valley 25 years ago, is among those who prefers the old Simi Valley.

“When this place first opened up, you were out in the middle of nowhere,” Phillips said. “Unfortunately, it’s continuing to become bigger and bigger and bigger -- with no end in sight. Why in the world they have to go and tear into the mountains to build more houses is beyond me.”

City officials acknowledge that some residents object to the new development. But most projects underway have been in the works for years, they said. It’s only now that developers are exercising their right to build, spurred in large part by Southern California’s housing shortage.

Concerned that some residents are being priced out of the market, Simi Valley officials say providing more affordable housing in a city once known for its affordability is a top priority.

“We just can’t provide $500,000 homes,” Sedell said. “We want a community where those people who were born and raised here can afford to buy a house.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

By the numbers: Simi Valley

People and places

Median price of resale home ... $369,000

Median price of newly built home ... $850,000

Median household income ... $70,370

Owner-occupied housing ... 77.6%

Residents with bachelor’s degree or higher ... 25%

Residents living in poverty ... 5.8%

Average commute to work ... 29 minutes

Largest employers

Countrywide Financial ... 5,638 employees