DISPUTE CLOSER TO RESOLUTION; BOARD ACCEPTS MANY BIDS SUBMITTED FOR LAND.

Byline: Sylvia L. Oliande Daily News Staff Writer

The Rancho Simi Recreation and Parks District board accepted many offers from residents near the Simi Hills Golf Course to purchase land they thought was part of their back yards.

The action brings the two-year debate over property lines on the western edge of the golf course a step closer to an amicable end.

At its meeting Thursday night, the board held over three offers for further consideration, approved 11 offers for flat-land property, accepted two offers for non-essential slope land and rejected 11 offers for slope land.

District officials said the action will have no effect on the 155-acre golf course itself, since the land is now considered surplus and not vital to the facility.

``We didn't sell any property that was considered valuable for the golf course,'' said Rich Harrison, park operations and maintenance administrator. ``We only sold that which was above and beyond valuable. That's why we didn't sell the slope. The slope was a buffer between the course and the homes.''

The sales will create an irregular property line running from the course's parking lot to Presidio Drive because residents each have different amounts of land encroaching upon the public space.

``The board looked at each of these properties individually,'' Harrison said. ``No one answer would apply to each property. . . . All of a sudden you're going to have a jog in the property line. That shows how the board chose to address the problem.''

The transfer of deed to the property and completion of the transactions is expected to come during the first few months of the year.

Officials said that once the dust settles and the property line is established, the district will work with a landscape company to revamp the slope area above the course.

The district agreed to sell the land for $1.75 per square foot, with the proceeds going into a golf course fund for maintenance and improvements.

The board's action nearly brings to a close a sometimes contentious debate over property lines.

The discrepancy was found in 1995 when the district discovered that residents had fenced off and built swimming pools and decks on land legally owned by the park district.

The differences are about 19 inches to approximately 45 feet in some cases, and create situations where half of a swimming pool or a small grove of personal fruit trees sit on park land.

Officials said the confusion likely stemmed from the fact that homeowners have had to be responsible for maintaining the slopes behind their homes, even though they did not own them.

After the board voted in 1996 to sell off the slivers of land in question, the park district polled the 34 affected residents from 3052 to 3618 Texas Ave.

While two property owners did not respond to the survey, 23 of them asked to purchase the land, and nine chose to move their fences back to the original boundary line.