Denies Wrongdoing : Developer Agrees to Fine Over Grading of Simi Site

A firm that bulldozed 80 acres of pristine canyon land near Simi Valley has agreed to pay a $100,000 fine and to mitigate the damage with extensive landscaping, authorities said Monday.

“This is the first time ever we’ve gone after a developer for grading,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Gregory W. Brose said at a news conference. “They damaged it, and they have to repair it.”

Big Sky Ranch Co., a partnership that includes Santa Monica-based Watt Industries, one of California’s biggest real estate developers, agreed to the civil penalties without admitting any wrongdoing or liability.

“We didn’t believe we did anything wrong, but the county felt otherwise,” said Ted Cox, a senior vice president with Watt. He said his firm graded the land “to increase the agricultural use of the property.”

County officials however, said the land was graded in anticipation of a 2,000-unit housing development and a small shopping center, which Big Sky has proposed for 3,000 acres outside Simi Valley. The company earlier this year applied to the city of Simi Valley for zoning changes to build such a project.

“We believe this was not done for agricultural purposes,” Brose said. But he added that “no matter how you look at it, illegal grading occurred.”

The matter first came to the county’s attention in February, when a Simi Valley jogger noticed the grading and reported it to the U.S. Soil Conservation Service, a branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The investigation eventually included the state Department of Fish and Game, the Ventura County Public Works Department and the Ventura County district attorney’s office, whose staff flew over the site in a helicopter and videotaped the hillside erosion.

Brose said the grading leveled hills 30 feet high, dammed Tripas Canyon Creek, a tributary that flows into Canyon Creek, removed acres of topsoil and caused erosion 2 1/2 feet deep, which led to buildups of sediment farther downstream.

Loss of 70% of Harvest

Much of the land was eventually planted with safflower, although a U.S. Soil Conservation District official said that erosion and disruption of the topsoil caused Big Sky to lose an estimated 70% of its harvest.

Brose said the grading cost Big Sky about $150,000, an excessively high amount for growing a few extra crops.

In addition to the monetary fine, the agreement calls for Big Sky to unblock the waterway, install terraces, build sediment-retention basins and plant additional vegetation to combat erosion and mitigate the hillside “scars.”

The 10,000-acre Big Sky Ranch is on unincorporated county land north of the city of Simi Valley between Sand and Tapo canyons. Major development there would require annexation by the city and approval by Simi Valley’s Planning Commission and City Council.