BOULDER MAY GET PROTECTION; SIMI COUNCIL TO CONSIDER HISTORICAL DESIGNATION.

Byline: Lisa Mascaro Staff Writer

The big boulder along Kuehner Drive could have a rock solid place in history.

The Simi Valley City Council is slated Monday to take up the issue of designating the Knolls Rock as a Ventura County Historical Landmark, essentially assuring it would not be chipped away for development.

``Designating the rock a historical landmark, it's obviously brought attention to the rock, that it's a special part of the valley, it needs to be preserved,'' said Holly Huff, a resident and member of the Susana Knolls Homeowners Association working to preserve the rock in their neighborhood.

The 60-foot monolith sits at the south end of Kuehner Drive, just as the road becomes the Santa Susana Pass and climbs over the hill. City planning maps call for the eventual widening of Kuehner, which could require chiseling away at the rock.

Residents have been concerned about the rock since January, when the city was slated to discuss the property owner's plans to bring in 22 homes on the 12.9-acre site.

Since then, the Ventura County Cultural Heritage Board has held a hearing on the rock and concluded that it is a landmark based on county criteria.

Establishing the rock as a landmark would almost ensure it would not be cut for the roadway. Landmark status prohibits the ``defacement, demolition, alteration, removal of, or addition to the landmark,'' according to the city's staff report going to the City Council.

The city staff also reported that the property owner has agreed to the designation.

If the city decides to go forward with the road widening project, the city staff said it would need to either alter city plans, the historical designation or the roadway design, according the the report.

For residents, saving the rock is just one step in their battle to preserve the area from further development.

``It's a historical rock,'' said resident Sybil Scotford, a spokeswoman for the Country Open Space Association, a regional group promoting land preservation, and one of the residents who have been working on the issue. ``It's part of the wildlife area that attracted me'' to the area.