SIMI VALLEY : Wal-Mart to Foot Bill for Vote on Store

Wal-Mart has agreed to pay for a ballot measure seeking voter approval for the retail chain’s bid to build a store on a hillside overlooking the Simi Valley Freeway, officials said.

Wal-Mart representatives have signed a waiver indicating their willingness to pay the $16,800 for the citywide ballot measure on the Nov. 2 special election ordered Thursday by Gov. Pete Wilson, said John Newton, a Moorpark consultant representing the Arkansas-based retailer.

Simi Valley City Council members said they would require voter approval before considering the company’s request to jettison promises that a long-planned regional mall would first be built on the 129 acres north of Simi Valley Freeway between 1st Street and Erringer Road.

Wal-Mart is seeking to build a 151,000-square-foot store next to the property that City Council members promised residents years ago would remain untouched until a regional mall was built on the site.

But with the mall project indefinitely shelved, Wal-Mart in February applied to occupy 32 acres of the 129-acre mall site.

City Council members agreed at a May 3 meeting that they would reverse their original commitment that the mall would come first only if city voters gave them permission through a public vote.

Newton said Thursday that the company will seek to schedule the vote in November.

Wal-Mart’s plans to come to Simi Valley have been criticized by a vocal group of activists, who argue that allowing the discount retailer to build on the intended mall site may kill any hopes of ever attracting a mall.