HOUSING BOOM AT AN END? BUILDING PERMITS DROP 80 PERCENT IN '06; REBOUND POSSIBLE THIS YEAR.

Byline: ERIC LEACH Staff Writer

SIMI VALLEY -- In a sign that the city is winding down its booming housing development phase, the number of building permits for new homes and apartment units dropped more than 80 percent in 2006 compared with the year before.

In 2005, there were 1,387 building permits issued in Simi Valley, including 771 for single-family homes and 616 for multifamily units, according to the Burbank-based Construction Industry Research Board.

Last year, there were only 201 permits issued in the city, including 155 for single-family homes and 46 for multifamily units, according to Research Board and city records.

Ben Bartolotto, research director for the Research Board, said the number of housing permits was down generally in California, but the sharp drop in Simi Valley was unusual.

Brian Gabler, Simi Valley's assistant city manager and director of economic development, said although housing production has slowed statewide, the 2006 decrease in Simi Valley was not solely because of economic conditions.

The city has a voter-passed growth-control ordinance that limits the number of building permits each year, and 2005 had a high number of permits because of the construction of the Jefferson at Simi Valley apartment complex above the Simi Valley Town Center and the Big Sky housing development nearby.

``That was blip in the system,'' Gabler said.

Despite the downturn in 2006, the numbers should rebound this year with the Runkle Canyon project, which will bring 461 housing units in the hills south of the city above Sequoia Avenue.

In 2004, the city annexed 1,500 acres for the Runkle project, expected to include 323 single-family homes and 138 attached homes for senior citizens, with more than 90 percent of the acreage preserved as permanent open space.

Going forward, the Managed Growth Program approved by local voters in 2004 reduces the number of housing starts each year to 292 through 2012.

But even without the growth-control ordinance, Simi Valley's historical development pace should slow because there are fewer large open tracts of land for the kind of big projects that have characterized the city's history. Incorporated in 1969, Simi Valley now has 123,000 residents.

Anticipating the slowdown, the city for years has been looking for alternative sources of revenue to support services. Part of that strategy included building the Simi Valley Town Center mall, which in its first year brought in more than $2 million in sales taxes.

Almost a year ago, Mayor Paul Miller discussed the issue in his State of the City address.

``Because there is now much less buildable land within our borders, we will begin to see a very different type of growth,'' Miller said back in March. ``As our city continues toward buildout, development upon land surrounded by residential and business areas will be the norm.''

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SOURCE: Construction Industry Research Board and city of Simi Valley records.