Incorporation didn’t happen without a fight

CENTER OF COMMERCE—A view of Los Angeles Avenue during the late 1960s. As Simi’s busiest stretch of roadway was a magnet for retail business, as it is now. In 1969, Richard Nixon was inaugurated as the 37th president of the United States, Neil Armstrong walked on the moon and Woodstock rocked upstate New York.

In October of that same year, a rural ranch community called Simi became a city. The state’s 403rd city, in fact.

The years leading up to the Oct. 10 incorporation were challenging, however, as the battle for cityhood was not easily won. Longtime denizens of the communities known as Simi and Santa Susana weren’t sure they wanted to be a city. Many were cynical, saying that all it would mean was more taxes.

But change was upon the isolated valley on the edge of Ventura County whether the old timers wanted to accept it or not.

NOT FOR LONG—An article from The Enterprise published after the first incorporation vote failed in September 1966, largely due to opposition from those living in the Knolls and Sinaloa Lake. Pat Havens, who has served as the city’s historian for nearly 30 years, remembers Simi when it was little more than orchards and dirt roads. Her family moved to the area in 1943, when she was a freshman in high school, and her first impression was that Simi was a “thriving agricultural community.”

“It was a gorgeous place; it was just so pristine. There weren’t any developments of any kind, just huge cattle ranches,” she said, noting that the first stoplight wasn’t put in until 1959, at the corner of Tapo Street and Los Angeles Avenue.

The town soon experienced a rapid period of growth, due in part to low home prices. Schools were being built every three months and filling up fast.

FOUNDING FATHERS—Simi’s first mayor, Lester Cleveland, right, and first mayor pro tem, Jim Dougherty, receive the official document from Secretary of State John Sullivan recognizing Simi Valley as the 403rd city in the state of California on Oct. 10, 1969. But people began to question the way planning was taking place.

Ted Grandsen has lived in Simi all of his 76 years and served as the city’s second mayor.

He remembers residents being upset about certain developments the county allowed to be built, which prompted some townsfolk to consider incorporation.

“I remember at times a lot of people were unhappy with county jurisdiction. They wanted to have more local control over the development of the city, and everybody had to go to Ventura at the government center there if they wanted anything done,” Grandsen said. “They saw the change coming, and they wanted more control of that change.”

Howard Rogo and his wife and children moved to Simi in 1966—in the midst of the incorporation saga—to open Naha’s Department Store on Tapo Street. Back then the valley comprised two communities, Simi and Santa Susana, with Los Angeles Avenue being the main thoroughfare.

Though he was new to town, Rogo still sensed the county’s “complete disregard” for what the residents wanted. While the county administration often made Simi dwellers feel like second-class citizens, people weren’t convinced local leadership would be better.

“They really weren’t sure what it is (to be a city) until we sold them the idea what it would mean,” Rogo said. “You don’t have to go 30 miles to have your voice heard, . . . You could now call a city councilman and say, ‘Hey, can I talk with you?’”

At the same time people advocated for incorporation, others opposed it, especially those in the Santa Susana Knolls and the Sinaloa Lake area.

“It was very complicated in those times because the old and new were beginning to meld together,” said Mary Spielman, who moved here in 1962.

To educate residents about the benefits of cityhood and demonstrate that it could be accomplished without the need for additional taxes, an incorporation study committee was formed, and Spielman signed on to help.

Before the first incorporation vote, the committee printed a supplement to The Enterprise , the community newspaper, laying out what cityhood would mean for Simi. The article covered major issues including the budget, administration, city planning and road maintenance.

The committee called for a ‘yes’ vote on Sept. 27, 1966. But the ballot measure failed, 4,463 votes to 4,016.

Spielman said this first attempt at incorporation wasn’t a total loss.

“It allowed the people to get informed on what it meant to be a city and then to carry it from there,” she said.

Three years later, on Sept. 20, 1969, there was a second attempt at incorporation.

The Knolls and Sinaloa Lake were eliminated from the potential city boundaries, and this time voters approved cityhood, 6,454 votes to 3,685.

Voters also selected the name Simi Valley over Santa Susana.

On Oct. 10, council members Les Cleveland and Jim Dougherty traveled to Sacramento to receive the official incorporation status certificate.

That same evening, the council held its first meeting at Royal High School and took action on 30 agenda items, including appointing Cleveland as mayor and Dougherty as mayor pro tem.

As a member of the first council, Rogo said he did feel the pressure, knowing that the decisions made at each meeting would shape the future of the new city.

“The pressure was that we didn’t know what to do,” he said. “We were looking at each other like, can we do that? But we learned pretty fast.”

While serving his term as mayor in 1972, Grandsen said there was heavy public participation at city hall—then located where the Simi Valley Family YMCA is now—because of the establishment of neighborhood councils, a fairly new concept back then, and the plethora of development going on.

“We had very long City Council meetings, they lasted to the wee hours of the morning . . . because we were in a period of rapid growth,” he said.

Residents questioned every decision, and since Grandsen owned a nursery in town, citizens knew just where to find him if they wanted to chat.

“A lot of people didn’t know if the city was doing a good job or not. I think it was just growing pains,” he said.

City Manager Mike Sedell— who began his career with the city in 1972 as a CSUN intern— said the early years of the city were both dynamic and divisive but that they laid the groundwork for the community Simi is today.

“We were a city in its infancy then,” said Sedell, who was appointed to his current position in 1995. “We were going through a great deal of change. With local control came a great deal of decisions that had to be made.”

Though Simi has come a long way from its pioneer roots, many believe the city has managed to maintain its small town charm.

“I hear that time and again, that we are really a small town of 125,000,” Sedell laughed. “This community has come into middle age gracefully.”

Though he no longer lives in the town he helped to build, Rogo, one of Simi’s founding fathers, agrees.

“Every time I go (to Simi) and I go where the new shopping center is—I just drive everywhere—and I think, ‘That’s my Simi Valley,’” Rogo said. “Sometimes I tell my grandkids, I played a little part to make this, to beautify it the way it is today. And I’m very proud of that.”

The city will celebrate its 40th birthday tomorrow, Oct. 10, from 10 a.m. to noon at City Hall, 2929 Tapo Canyon Road.

Residents who lived in Simi Valley in 1969 are invited to come early at 9 a.m. to participate in a commemorative group photo.

For a schedule of activities, visit www.simivalley.org.