COUNCIL TO RESTUDY MARR RANCH 226-HOME MOUNTAINS AREA PROJECT HAS RESIDENTS WORRIED.

Byline: Cecilia Chan Staff Writer

The City Council on Monday will review the final environmental report for a 226-home project flanking the Santa Susana Mountains, a plan that has two neighborhoods worried about traffic.

The Planning Commission last month recommended approving the second phase of the 950-acre Marr Ranch development, proposed by RBF Associates Inc., of Los Angeles.

Projections that the development will result in nearly 1,600 car trips a day has raised concerns among residents of the Nob Hill neighborhood on Presidio Drive and the so-called Texas Tract neighborhood, east of Tapo Street.

Residents living on the yet-to-be-completed Presidio Drive oppose having their street connecting Tapo Street and Tapo Canyon Road, saying it will entice through traffic into their neighborhood.

Jim Hudson, who's lived in the Nob Hill area since 1983, said there are 21 driveways that back onto Presidio, and that making it a connector road would cause more crashes.

And the stop signs and speed humps being considered to slow traffic once the connection goes through would only force traffic onto other side streets, he said.

``Those streets would get traffic that otherwise they wouldn't,'' said Hudson, who thinks the city could instead build a new road north of the project.

``That solution would take the burden off both neighborhoods,'' he said.

That option was examined, but was found to be infeasible because it would have required too much grading into the hillside, said the city's project planner, Paul Scheibel.

Residents living in the Texas Tract favor the road connection to Tapo Canyon because it would route the development's traffic away from Valley View Middle School at Tapo Street and Walnut Avenue.

Residents Kathy Crose and Sue Hart have organized their neighbors in encouraging the connection.

``My first choice is not to have those houses at all,'' said Crose, who lives on Tapo. ``What we have to do is make it best for everyone involved.''

Crose said the street near the school is already a nightmare to travel on and ``our position is if it's bad now, if we don't let the traffic go somewhere else it will be worse. We want the burden of the traffic to be shared over as many avenues as possible.''

After examining various road options, the staff has recommended that the council approve constructing Presidio Drive to connect the two streets. However, instead of four traffic lanes, as specified by the city's General Plan, it recommends a two-lane road, with parking on each side.

The council has several other options, including requiring a frontage road along Presidio Drive or rejecting Presidio as a connector road.

Scheibel said the 950-acre Marr Ranch development area includes three phases. The first phase on the east side of Yosemite Avenue had 250 homes. The final phase calls for a maximum of 50 homes.

The project is in unincorporated Ventura County, and is contingent on the county Local Agency Formation Commission approving its annexation to Simi Valley.

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Marr Ranch project site