SIMI VALLEY OFFICIALS PLAN CITY MAKEOVER; GUIDELINES AIM FOR UPSCALE LOOK.

Byline: Sylvia L. Oliande Staff Writer

Gone will be the scraggly trees, unsightly utility boxes and outdated signs that dot the landscape of some shopping centers and industrial buildings across the city.

In their place will be meandering sidewalks, lush landscaping, ornate fountains and buildings that integrate, as planners say, with their surroundings.

City leaders recently unveiled Simi Valley citywide design guidelines, which they said were created to give the city a cleaner, more unified and more upscale feeling.

``I think people are in such a hurry now,'' said Councilwoman Barbra Williamson. ``They go to work. They come home. They want to be in a pleasing atmosphere. They want to feel like this is a good place to be.''

The guidelines manual grew out of the city's Vision 2020 document, compiled by residents and elected officials two years ago to determine how the city should look and operate by the year 2020.

The elements found in the design guidelines were culled from input from the 2020 committee, as well as suggestions made in a communitywide survey.

Mark Brodeur, an executive with Urban Design Studio, the city's design consultant, said what Simi Valley is asking of developers is right in the middle of the road - it's not asking for as much as some cities, and there are cities asking a lot less.

``Considering the age of the city, they're probably right about where they should be,'' Brodeur said. ``Any stricter and they might scare development away, any looser and they may not really be able to affect the change they want.''

The manual is one of many tools the city is trying to create for itself to beautify the town.

Other plans already in place, or in the works, include ordinances that dictate property maintenance, protect mature trees and set sign standards. In addition, there are grant programs in the redevelopment areas to spur improvement projects.

City planners said many developers have been willing to include more design elements into their projects, even though the guidelines have not yet been finalized.

Once the manual is approved by the City Council, only developers of new projects and those property owners who are planning extensive improvements will have to consider the new way of doing business in their design.

City workers are also expected to use the manual when drawing up streetscapes and road improvements.

A draft of the guidelines manual was first presented this month to a joint meeting of the city council and planning commission, and a final version is expected to be submitted this month.

Among the sprucing-up suggestions: Open spaces between buildings should be used as dining areas or accented with fountains and special paving stones; well-defined pedestrian walkways should be part of parking lots; and at least 10 percent of a plaza's surface should be landscaped.

Other design elements include covering machinery on streets, and using planters, decorative furniture and lighting in commercial and industrial areas.

There are suggestions for nearly every kind of building - from service stations and car dealerships to industrial buildings and shopping centers.

Williamson said several examples of what the city should look like can already be found in the lush landscaping along Alamo Street, the attention to detail of the Civic Center Plaza and the architecture of the Kaiser Permanente office.

Brodeur said the guidelines included in the manual aren't unique, but some are specific to the climate conditions of Simi Valley.

For example, they call for using tiles, reflective glass and light colored walls that make buildings energy efficient in hot daytime temperatures.

City officials know that, because a good number of the elements cited in the manual will bring additional costs to a project, some developers might be reluctant to follow them.

But they add, there also are those property ownersC who see the value of improving their sites and who will comply with the new guidelines.

Pat Donahue, executive vice president of Donahue-Schrieber, said the company and the city had a meeting of the minds over plans for redesigning the company's Sinaloa Shopping Center on Los Angeles Avenue.

``The shopping center has the feeling that it's rather linear,'' he said. ``Both of us wanted to try to break up that particular problem. To do that, we're adding a tower element to the property.''

Brodeur said because the guidelines are simply suggestions and not retroactive, the city is not going to look like Pasadena, or even Thousand Oaks, overnight.

He estimates real physical changes to be apparent six to 10 years after the guidelines are put in place.

``Everyone asks me why they can't look like Santa Barbara right now,'' he said. ``And I have to tell them the reason they can't look like Santa Barbara is that they didn't establish design guidelines in 1935.''

City officials said they hope that as operators of older shopping centers in town see the business being generated by the newer, more modern centers, they will be moved to make some improvements of their own.

``You sure see a lot of this going on everywhere you go,'' Donahue said. ``We want our shopping center to be the most competitive in the marketplace. So, if we want to do business in Simi Valley, we have to do this.''