Traffic Foes, Simi Officials Unable to Agree on Limits

After meeting for the second time in a week, the Simi Valley City Council and members of a slow-growth group pushing a traffic-control initiative for the November ballot said they may not be able to resolve their differences.

The Fight Ill-Favored Growth and Horrible Traffic (FIGHT) group will continue its efforts to gather 3,800 signatures by May 27 so that the initiative can go on the ballot, said Paul La Bonte, spokesman for the group. More than 1,000 signatures already have been collected, he said.

A special joint session of the council and the city Planning Commission was held Tuesday night in an attempt to reach an agreement with members of FIGHT so they would drop plans for the initiative.

But, La Bonte said: “We’re still miles apart. When we started these discussions, we told them that, if they could come up with something that was equal or better, we’d pull our initiative. But that doesn’t look like it will happen, so our initiative stands.”

The initiative would ask voters to require the City Council to impose a moratorium on development that causes congestion until a plan is adopted to address traffic problems. And it would call for the city to require developers to pay for street improvements to correct traffic problems within 1 1/2 miles of their projects.

Last month, FIGHT members said they would consider halting the initiative drive if public hearings were held that led to the City Council approving traffic-control measures similar to those proposed by the group. The City Council and Planning Commission heard public testimony on the issue last week, but continued the hearing until Tuesday. Mayor Greg Stratton said the City Council and the slow-growth group could not agree on a traffic-circulation standard.

Stratton said the Planning Commission wanted to permit slightly more traffic in peak hours than the group will tolerate.