Simi Planners Deny Extra Time for Developer

The Simi Valley Planning Commission has refused to give a developer another year to finish plans to build 84 single-family homes and 32 apartments near the site of an ancient Chumash Indian village.

A tribal representative recently criticized the project as a threat to Chumash artifacts found on a nearby hillside.

The 20-acre project is planned for the northeast end of Simi Valley, on Kuehner Drive along the Simi Valley Freeway.

Planning Commission Chairman Bob Wieting said the developer, Paragon Homes of Santa Monica, has 20 days to appeal to the City Council the commission’s Wednesday night refusal to allow an extra year of planning. A Paragon spokesman said Thursday that the company would appeal.

If the appeal is denied, the project would be canceled.

Paragon in 1981 was given permission to build the residences, contingent on approval of its final plans. The developer was given a one-year extension to complete the plans, but the extension expired last month.

Wieting said the commission denied another extension because Paragon had been given “significant opportunity to get the project under way.” The commission also objected to a part of the plans that would set the homes only five feet from the street, officials said.

Bud Garfield, president of Paragon Homes, said delays were caused by rezoning of the area and by the company’s decision to switch from town houses to single-family homes.

The Chumash representative, Charlie Cooke, 50, of Newbury Park, had complained that grading would destroy artifacts discovered in the area during a 1980 archeological study. They include a rock drawing and fragments of man-made tools, he said.

Although the controversy over the Indian artifacts played no role in the commission’s decision on the project, Mike Kuhn, a city planner, said the city has made sure that the artifacts are preserved.