School district sells lot near Wood Ranch to RSRPD for use by public
By Miguel Morales miguel@theacorn.com

The Simi Valley School Board last week approved the sale of a 42-acre plot of surplus land to the Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District.

The land, park officials say, will be used to create the newest addition to the city's extensive trail system.

Located at the top of First Street on Long Canyon Road, the property was originally part of a larger 1,000-acre plot given to the school district by Olympia & York Properties Co.

Most of that property was sold off in 1995 to raise funds for what is now Madera Elementary School and has since been developed into the Wood Ranch community.

Lowell Schultze, school district assistant superintendent in charge of business and facilities, said the district had no intentions of developing the 42acre parcel themselves. The land will be sold to the park district for $875,000.

The profit from the sale of the land, Schultze said, will go "directly back into schools." But the greatest beneficiaries of the sale, he added, are those residents who will be able to enjoy the property as open space.

"The land is being put in good hands, and this way the natural state of the area will be preserved for public use for many years to come," Schultze said.

According to Larry Peterson, park district general manager, some cleanup will be required to rid the land of debris and equipment left behind by farmers whose cattle grazed on the land for many years.

When it's ready, the land will help connect many major trails in the Wood Ranch area, trails the park district intends to keep open for public use, Peterson said.

"Public ownership of the land will be a great benefit to everyone," he said. "By (the park district) owning the land we can prevent private ownership from fencing off the land and preventing its use by the public."

The land is to be purchased with $465,000 in funds from the Federal Land and Water Conservation Grant and the Santa Monica Mountain Conservation Grant, and $410,000 from the park district. In a Nutshell + The Simi Valley Unified District Board of Trustrees recently approved the sale of an empty 42-acre lot on Long Canyon Road to the Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District.

+ Park District officials say the land will be kept as open space and used to connect trail systems near Wood Ranch.

+ The sale will earn SVUSD an estimated $875,000, which the associate superintendent said would go directly into Simi Valley schools. RSRPD is paying the cost with grant money.