Long Canyon Project Up for Zoning OK

The eagerly awaited $250-million Long Canyon housing development comes before the City Council on Monday for zoning approval, and with it the promise that a badly needed elementary school will be built soon in Wood Ranch.

The Simi Valley council is set to resolve several zoning issues needed before New Urban West can build the first 214 houses in a planned 652-home subdivision--the last unbuilt chunk of the huge Wood Ranch project.

The council is to vote on changes to the city’s General Plan and the Wood Ranch Specific Plan. It will consider the development agreement between New Urban West and the Simi Valley Unified School District, which owns the site and hopes to sell it to the developer for $7.5 million.

And the council is to consider a tentative tract map and the development permit for the first phase of construction in the Long Canyon section of Wood Ranch. There has been little opposition to the project.

Neighboring Wood Ranch homeowners have been clamoring for the housing to be built because it is tied to plans to build an elementary school that would take the burden off of crowded Madera Elementary School. The district is expected to spend the proceeds from the land sale on building the school.