Infrastructure lacking Mr. Beezley has certainly not presented both sides of the argument. The proposed Katherine Meadows apartments would be built outside of Simi Valley city limits, in an unincorporated area. The Santa Susana Knolls community has small streets that are not maintained. There are no sidewalks, no streetlights beyond the railroad tracks, no street parking to speak of, and is an extreme fire hazard area. Our concerns are not that affordable housing is built, but that 200 units will be too many. The realistic potential here is that there will be 400 additional cars driving these unmaintained roads. Often, the trains stop on the tracks, blocking Katherine Road right in front of the proposed complex. When this happens, all traffic turns around and winds around Katherine Road to the other end. As this happened last week at 6 p.m., and I drove with about 40 of my neighbors trying to get in or out of the community, I thought to myself, "What would this be like with 400 more cars trying to come home at rush hour?" Add to this the fact that many of these houses have no front yards to speak of, so children play in the streets in front of their homes. People walk dogs on the narrow streets and wash cars while pulled as far off the street as they can. These traffic issues alone make me worry about the safety issues involved in putting so many more cars on the roads in this community. Mr. Beezley states that our concerns for proper fire evacuation and safety on our roads are not valid reasons to oppose this development. This is exactly the type of thinking that creates Los Angeles traffic conditions. Putting housing in areas without the proper infrastructure does not make sense to anyone but those getting rich off the development itself. The roads, schools, utilities and plans need to be in place before hundreds of tenants move in. And since the Susana Knolls area is unincorporated and not zoned for an apartment complex, this seems unlikely to take place. We aren't opposed to development on this land. We are opposed to development that the community cannot support and which the land is not zoned to accommodate. We would be most supportive of affordable housing built in an area of the city that has the infrastructure to accommodate the residents. And we are in support of fewer homes being built on the property formerly owned by the horse ranch in the Santa Susana Knolls. - Erin Bacon, Simi Valley |