SIMI VALLEY : Apartment-Office Proposal Is Shelved

A 6-year-old proposal that would have allowed apartments to be built above offices in central Simi Valley was shelved indefinitely by the City Council late Monday.

Council members said they backed away from the plan for the so-called mixed-use zoning after residents insisted that it would increase crime and create slums.

Hundreds of residents signed petitions opposing the idea, and even the initial supporters of the zoning asked the council for added time to make revisions.

The council was considering mixed-use zoning because the city’s General Plan recommended it to increase affordable housing in the city.

Supporters of the concept said young people and seniors living in mixed-use buildings could abandon their cars and walk to work or to shops. Developers could charge less for apartments because revenue from commercial tenants would help support building costs.

And, supporters said the new type of zoning would halt the city’s sprawl into environmentally sensitive open space by returning residents to the city’s center. The apartments could have been built on Tapo Street near Alamo Street.

Members of a city committee that helped formulate the mixed-use plan said they would use the added time to revise the idea and try again to sell it to area residents.