Simi Mayor Has Great Expectations for 1998

SIMI VALLEY —  Trumpeting the city’s recent triumphs while predicting a future ripe with opportunity, Mayor Greg Stratton said Simi Valley stands poised to make similar gains in the coming year during his State of the City address Thursday.

Touting such achievements as again being distinguished as the safest big city in the country and having a sewage plant worthy of national recognition for its efficient management, Stratton described the city of 103,000 people as a progressive, forward-thinking community that has rebounded from a host of natural and fiscal calamities.

“It’s an exciting time for Simi Valley. . . . The recession is over, the Northridge earthquake is behind us and we’re moving forward,” Stratton told the more than 200 business and community leaders who gathered at the Radisson Hotel for the address.

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Stratton began with a look back on 1997, which he hailed as one of the most productive years for the city this decade, particularly in the wake of the 1994 Northridge earthquake, which kept the community’s economy stuck in low gear.

The city’s distinction as one of the nation’s safest cities was lauded by the mayor as a result of the Police Department and community coming together to safeguard the city’s family friendly neighborhoods from crime.

He encouraged citizens and law enforcement officials to continue their work so the city may again earn the safe-city designation.

The local economy, which has been sluggish in recent years, played a central role in Stratton’s address. He described the economy as being primed and ready to speed ahead, particularly in light of a number of new housing and commercial developments.

There are currently 19 new housing developments slated for construction in Simi Valley, which will add another 1,500 homes and 5,000 people.

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Stratton said those people will feed the city’s hungry economy and empower local businesses with a host of potential new customers. Additionally, new home construction will provide hundreds of temporary construction jobs.

Stratton said residents have a lot to look forward to in 1998.

The new, 308,000-square-foot Wal-Mart shopping plaza is tentatively scheduled to break ground this spring, and by summer the city’s 120-person police force will move into a new headquarters near the courthouse.

Regarding the long-awaited and much-talked-about mall, Stratton said it’s closer to reality than ever before.

“That’s the first question everybody asks,” he said. “But we think that this economic cycle is the time that the mall will be built . . . We should see some movement on the property in the next couple of years.”

The mayor pledged that the city will continue its road rehabilitation program with work slated on Stearns, Cochran and Alamo streets as well as Tierra Rejada and Madera roads. All those streets will be resurfaced and undergo extensive face-lifts to include landscaping and medians.

The first phase of the Tapo Street revitalization campaign should also be completed in 1998, he said. The city has already approved plans to revive the quake-damaged business district and has committed $750,000 to the project.

“All in all, 1997 was a good year for us and your city is in fine shape,” Stratton said. “But we’re looking toward to 1998 as a year of fulfillment that will see many of the plans we’ve made in the past become reality.”