Grading has restarted on a nearly 1,600-acre Simi Valley subdivision after a decade of controversy over its proximity to the contaminated Santa Susana Field Laboratory. Runkle Ranch would total more than 325 single-family homes and 138 senior condos when completed, as well as 1,100 acres of open space. Nestled in the Simi Hills, with views that reach across the city, it would seem like a dream project for the development partnership of L.A. builder KB Home and Lennar Homes, a unit of Lennar Corp. of Miami. But it has taken years to move forward given its position less than a mile from the Santa Susana site, where a small nuclear test reactor melted down in 1959. “It’s been quite the undertaking here, but this is one of the most beautiful pieces of property in Simi Valley,” said Tom DiPrima, executive vice president for KB Home Southern California and project manager. This isn’t the first development the city has green-lighted near the lab, which is being cleaned up by Chicago aerospace giant Boeing Co., NASA and the Department of Energy, but it’s the closest. A decade ago, the Parker Ranch project of several hundred single-family homes and more than 250 multi-family units was built. (See accompanying story on cleanup.) Runkle Ranch was originally approved in 2004 but work stopped after an uproar that prompted the city to ask for outside testing of the site. Grading restarted a couple of month ago after new permits were issued to develop the land. Some still aren’t happy with the project, and there are questions in the real estate community about whether the developers will have their hands full trying to sell the homes. “The city is just pushing ahead with this thing no matter what,” said Frank Serafine, a member of an activist group called the Radiation Rangers. Serafine said he lived in Simi Valley for years before relocating to L.A. because he said Simi isn’t safe. “They just want this project developed, but they’ve never done all the tests they should.” Long time coming The original Runkle Ranch encompassed about 2,800 acres and was a cattle and farming operation. Sand and gravel mining also took place in the canyon through the 1980s. Housing development began in the early 1960s and continued steadily through the late 1990s, when Shea Homes, a division of the J.F. Shea Co. of Walnut and Beazer Homes of Atlanta, began work on Madison County, a tract of about 355 homes along Sequoia Avenue. But none of the projects were as close to the lab as Runkle Ranch at the southern tip of Sequoia Avenue. An environmental impact report for the project was prepared, publicly reviewed and adopted in 2004, with the results stating the development would cause no threat to public health. But as a result of concerns from residents like Serafine, the city halted grading and requested independent testing from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, California Department of Health Services and California Department of Toxic Substances Control. In a letter dated Nov. 8, 2006, the California Department of Health Services stated that development activities at the site “do not pose significant health and safety concerns to nearby residents or to site workers.” The Department of Toxic Substance Control oversaw several more years of review. The agency required a cleanup of what it called a “small amount of tar material from the drainage areas,” which took place over two days in September 2010. Finally, in December 2010, the agency issued a letter to the city stating that no further testing was required. Due to the years of testing and environmental review, the developer had to request an extension on the development agreement, which was approved by the city in 2012. New grading permits were issued in August. “This whole thing is a validation of the process that we went through,” said Assistant City Manager Jim Purtee. “We certainly took a long road to get here, but we took the right one.” Avery West has lived in Simi Valley since 1977 and sits on the city’s neighborhood council for the district that includes Runkle Ranch. He said the proximity to the Santa Susana site was only of minor worry to him. “My biggest concern is that with all those units coming onto the market, it may slow down the price increases of existing homes,” he said. But once the homes are complete and available for sale, the development may have some perception challenges to overcome in marketing. Charles Lech is president of the Conejo-Simi-Moorpark Association of Realtors and a residential broker with the Westlake Village office of Dilbeck Real Estate. He said the challenge for Runkle Ranch will be reduced potential buyers. “It’s not something that everyone has a problem with, but there will be some people very concerned,” he said. “You want as many people as possible interested in your property. This will reduce the total amount of people interested. I think it will affect the overall highest price you could get for the property.” However, Lech noted there is demand for new housing in Simi Valley, as he said the market – where the median price was $483,000 in March – had a less than three-month supply during the first quarter. Dismissing criticism Eric Sussman, a professor at UCLA Ziman Center for Real Estate, was a bit more worried. “A lot of people are going to say ‘No way, we’re not going to raise our family here,’” he said. “In a bull real estate market, buyers will overlook faults and uncertainties. It’s going to be really interesting.” Serafine said his group will not give up and is still trying to figure out a way to halt the development. “We’ll take this down. No one will buy those homes,” he said. “We’ll do whatever we can for that.” DiPrima from KB Home dismissed such criticism, citing the thousands of homes nearby. “One of the most unknown facts about this is that the community will be built on Runkle Canyon ranch, which already has several thousand homes on it,” he said. “There’s a huge demand for housing.” The grading process at Runkle Ranch will take between 14 and 18 months. Few architectural specifications have been submitted to the city thus far, with the exception of the senior condos, which will be the first part of the project. DiPrima expects those units, a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom units that which will range from about 950 square feet to 1,900 square feet, to be available by the middle of next year. He declined to discuss pricing. It could be more than two years before the single-family portion of the Runkle Ranch project gets underway, since the developers have not yet submitted a design application. “The main component that we’ll start first is the senior homes. That’s what we’re focused on,” DiPrima said. “This is going to be a great development for the whole community.” Boeing: Cleanup Almost Done at Field Lab After years of work, the cleanup at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory site is approaching completion. Remediation of the roughly 2,800 acres is being handled by Chicago aerospace giant Boeing Co., NASA and the Department of Energy. Boeing owns about 2,400 acres of the property, which it acquired in 1996 when it purchased the aerospace and defense units of Rockwell International Corp. NASA owns the remainder. Santa Susana began operations in the late 1940s and was used by various companies and public entities. Most notably, the lab was a rocket engine manufacturing facility for Rocketdyne. Rocket engines used on the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo space missions were tested at the site. It also served as a test site for nuclear research, including a test reactor that melted down in 1959. But operations continued, and it served as a rocket engine testing site until 2006. Multiple chemical spills occurred over the decades, and in 1989, an investigation by the Department of Energy found substantial chemical and radioactive contamination. Boeing has installed a groundwater treatment system to control the spread of contaminants, removed or treated more than 74,000 cubic yards of soil, drilled 400 extraction wells and dismantled some 400 structures. All aerospace and energy operations have ceased and visitors can tour the site. Radioactive and chemical contamination is limited to some groundwater, but Boeing maintains it does not pose a risk to the local communities, workers or visitors. Megan Hilfer, environmental communications specialist with Boeing, said cleanup at the Santa Susana site is moving along well, with a completion target date of 2017. “We’re continuing to move forward with the cleanup with the end goal of open space and preserving all the cultural and biological characteristics of the site,” she said. Boeing also has planted more than 900 acres with native plants. Once the cleanup is complete, the company plans to donate the site for what it calls “public benefit,” including maintaining the land as open space for parkland and wildlife habitat. Russ Edmondson, spokesperson for the California Department of Toxic Substance Control or DTSC, added though there is still remaining contamination in certain areas of the site, it should not be an issue for any current development. “While there is contamination on the Santa Susana Field Laboratory property, that will be cleaned up. DTSC is not aware of any current off-site contamination from Santa Susana Field Laboratory that poses a risk to residents or development,” he said in an email. – Elliot Golan
