Development's road-widening project threatens 'the heart' of the Knolls

As if the threat of overdevelopment on the site of the Knolls Horse Ranch weren't scary enough, developer Colton Lee is now proposing a devastating, illconceived road-widening project that would tear through the very heart of the very rural and woodsy Susana Knolls.

Colton Lee's new proposal for the horse ranch site consists of 142 units of manufactured homes- basically a fancy trailer park complete with a pool, clubhouse and only one road in and out. Potential residents would purchase a manufactured home, choose a site in the park and then pay rent to Colton Lee Development, oblivious to the fact that they are living on borrowed time in a high fire zone.

It doesn't take much imagination to see what a terrible effect the traffic would have on this rural neighborhood.

As many as 300 more cars could be coming and going into the Knolls across a busy railroad track- a dangerous railroad track, complete with Metrolink trains and long and noisy freight trains, day and night, seven days a week.

Now, consider a catastrophic fire like the one we survived in 2005. A very long train was stopped on the tracks because fire was surrounding the track to the east, blocking escape on Katherine Road. Susana Pass Road was shut down because of the fire blazing on the pass. In essence, Katherine was shut down on the north and the south.

Three years ago, Ventura County supervisors rejected Colton Lee's proposal, citing that it was too dense, unsafe and that it needed a mandatory secondary access. Now, in a desperate show of greed, Colton Lee is proposing that the secondary access for his squarepeg-in-a-round-hole development simply be Katherine Road. How?

Well, the developer wants to rip out trees, take out driveways and gut the yards of all the residents on Katherine Road from the horse ranch all the way through the Knolls, just to widen the road.

Instead of providing a mandatory safe, secondary emergency access, Colton Lee is proposing that a widened Katherine Road can suddenly become two roads . . . the north and the south entrance.

Since when did the profit of a greedy developer outweigh the lives of the residents who currently call the Knolls home? Since when did one road become two? Susan L. Wells Simi Valley