Residents are fed up Area officials have already announced they've met affordable housing goals and have even turned down proposals to build more units next to shopping, jobs and transit. Yet, Gilbert Beezley supports squeezing a 250-plus unit housing project into an isolated, brush-covered, fire-prone area? Mr. Beezley seems to pass off local safety concerns as something of a minor inconvenience that Knolls' families need to put up with or shut up about. Yet, ask the families of victims who died fleeing last year's fires if ours is a silly concern. My family has evacuated the Knolls several times and a high-density housing project could easily double the number of vehicles with people struggling to escape the next firestorm. Would you risk the lives of hundreds of families in exchange for any sort of housing project? The owner of Katherine Meadows was granted a zoning change allowing about 40 compatible units and no one complained. But now the developer wants to build more than 250 units. Obviously, there's a lot more profit in so many rentals versus fewer mortgages. Most of the Knolls' residents are hard-working folk. I know none who are against affordable housing. The Knolls is not a landscaped mecca for yuppies and entertainment moguls. The Knolls is a rustic oasis of peace for hard-working families. And those families are feeling awfully threatened by a high-density project that is incompatible with present land use. In response to these threats, the Knolls is organizing like no other time before. About 2,000 signatures are being collected from Simi Valley's east end alone. One supervisor's seat was held on to by a slim margin recently, sparking the creation of a countywide political action committee to support sympathetic candidates in the future and maybe to even initiate a recall. And a prototype bill is being drafted that would give future oversight for development in limited-access, emergency-prone areas to local committees made up of fire and law enforcement personnel. We'll work with sympathetic developers, but not with those who would rip apart our lives simply for their gain. We'll work with sympathetic elected officials. But we'll work against those who refuse to meet with us and hear our concerns. Like other neighborhoods across this county, the Knolls is fed up and we will not take it any more! -- Gary Selvaggio, Santa Susana Knolls |