City Council — March 10, 2026

Thank you very much. Roll call,

All right

thank you

I move that all resolutions and ordinances presented tonight be read in title only, and all further reading be waived.

Second.

Call for the vote.

Vote passes unanimously.

Thank you. Mr. City Attorney are there any reports from closed session? No

thank you Madam Mayor nothing to report out of closed session.

If any member of the City Council may have a conflict of interest or any reason why that member must abstain from consideration of any matter on this agenda, he or she should so declare at this time. Seeing none we can move on.

12 locations that a production company uses And so far what I've seen and I've gone around where production has been, they've only chosen like Macy's at the town center maybe one house here you know that may be listed in LA. But anyway um I want to list other properties and I need a broker so if anyone knows of a broker I don't know if I can say that or ask that but I'm putting it out there And so that's what I'm trying to do. And you, sir, have invited me to the committee meeting whenever you have one. Well, if I haven't said it and I probably already did, I have a couple of companies that are in pre-production right now. I don't want a piece of the pie. I want the whole pie.

I want the whole pie and we deserve it. It's more income coming into the city. So anyway... That's about it. I have business cards, whoever doesn't have one who's lost one, I might look at you oddly because you lost it. You can put it on your refrigerator or your wallet. I'm not going to check on you but I'll know. Anyway thank you very much.

Thank you

Three minutes, all right. Hi everyone I missed everyone haven't been around for a little bit but i'm back like a bad dream uh like a bad penny so um you guys should have known we're talking about bicycles I had to show up I had to And here I've bugged you guys for years now that we need a bicycle master plan. Yap, yap, yap! Where's our bicycle master plan? And now we're talking about coming out with one and I'm going to ask you guys wait a minute...

Let's try and kick this can down the road a little bit. Keep in mind, the effort we go through to even put out an RFP for the consultants that come up with this bicycle master plan by the time we go through all of that process The e-mobility, not just e-bikes but the e-mobility has taken off and it's changed the landscape. And believe me this is not the only city municipality across the nation that is grappling with this problem and there have been horrible accidents all over so yes we do need to do something but what we need to do is take a minute and really look at our bicycle master plan.

Again, we applaud ourselves because we came up with some rules and regulations. And I've stood at this and said, we cannot regulate this problem away. We have to invest in the infrastructure to give these people a place to use their devices no matter what it is, no matter the wheel size. We need to give them a place. Look in the Bicycle Master Plan. Two of our high schools are on Cochran. Cochran is a dangerous street to ride a bike on, it has no class whatsoever, not class one, it's a zero. It is a dangerous thoroughfare to think that you could ride a bike down and we put two of our high schools on it?

So let's take the time out. We don't have to throw the Bicycle Master Plan away but maybe we can amend it a little bit To start to give some forethought to, yes we need to make Cochran passable for a bicycle so the kids can ride to school for crying out loud. And again, I appreciate the fact that you guys are talking about a bicycle master plan. I just want to make sure it's one that's going to have some significance for us as a community moving forward because right now, as you well know, some knucklehead riding around L.A. saying vote for me doesn't work. It's dangerous. So again, let's take our time maybe and push this adopting the bicycle master plan down for a little bit. All right, thank you guys.

Thank you.

The next three that wish to speak are Aline Eason, Anthony Eason and James McGillis.

Good evening, Mayor Cavanaugh, council members, city attorney and city manager. My name is Alin Eason and I have lived in Simi Valley 41 years. One year ago on March the 10th, 2025, I spoke for the first time at a City Council meeting. Tonight will be the 15th time I'm speaking as a proponent to ban STRs Please put short-term rentals back on the agenda for the next City Council meeting. There is no legitimate reason to wait six to eight weeks before you take action on an ordinance to ban all STRs.

I would like to thank all four neighborhood councils for their input and recommendation to ban STRs citywide Kelly Duffy, you did a great job as community services coordinator overseeing the meetings. Also I would like to thank the Planning Commission for their deliberation and unanimous decision to ban STRs. And a big thank you to everyone who attended last Wednesday night's planning commission meeting to support this issue.

The petition signed by over 430 people, voting of all four neighborhood councils and the unanimous vote from the planning commission for to zero are all confirmation and endorsement that people in Simi want STRs banned. It is time for this council to realize that the advisory boards which represent the people who live here have provided you with valuable input supporting our viewpoint, which is to ban all STR's.

Please listen to the will of the people and your appointed advisory boards, neighborhood councils and planning commission and do what's right Have staff create an ordinance for a citywide ban on STRs. Thank you.

Thank you.

Hello, my name is Anthony Eason I'm a 41 year resident of Simi Valley and an advocate for a ban of short-term rentals in Simi Valley Good evening Mayor Cavanaugh, Mayor Pro Tem Lister, Council Persons Judge Aiella and Rhodes, City Attorney Ford and City Manager Argebrite. After nearly 16 months of considering only legislation to legalize and regulate short-term rentals in Simi Valley it's time for you to put STRs back on the agenda and direct staff to draft an ordinance to ban them citywide.

Some of you have made the unsupported assertion that bans do not work because listings still appear where they are banned. At the last City Council meeting, I gave data that indicated there are probably as many if not more STR violators in cities where they are regulated. Many laws are violated daily using your logic all laws that are violated don't work You have been presented with petitions requesting you ban SDRs in our city.

All four neighborhood councils rejected your ordinance and two of them recommended a ban. Now the Simi Valley Planning Commission has recommended denial of the proposed ordinance and advised the City Council to direct staff to prepare an ordinance establishing a citywide ban on STRs. Are you listening? What else do you want or need to proceed with a ban? Do you literally need an STR to fall out of the sky and land on top of you like Dorothy's House did on The Wicked Witch of the East.

I think there is enough evidence that a ban is wanted, and legalization with regulation is not. There shouldn't be a reason it takes six to eight weeks for this to come back to the City Council's agenda. There are no changes needed to be made to an ordinance that is not wanted. I urge you to get this back on the city council's agenda as soon as possible and direct staff to get working on an ordinance to ban, thank you.

Thank you.

Mayor Cavanagh? Members of the City Council and staff. I'm James McGillis, 19-year resident now of Simi Valley. Two score and 17 years ago our founders brought forth a new city known as Simi Valley conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all natural persons are created equal. Now we are engaged in a short term rental war testing whether that city or any city so conceived and dedicated can long endure We are met here tonight on a great battlefield of that conflict. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a graveyard, where the specter of dark money and corporate interests still prevail. Many will seek solace and safety in their homeowners associations while others will find a final resting place next door to a motel.

Those motels next door shall be constrained to only 38% of this city. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should consecrate those neighborhoods as graveyards to home ownership. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave people living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here but it can never be forgotten what they did here. Last night I had a dream I was in the dreaded valley, looking toward the beloved Simi Hills. There ascending Rocky Peak was a series of dark money tornadoes on the other side one vortex descended upon Amarillo Avenue destroying a home and leaving it in six distinct pieces there amid the destruction stood the spirit of Abraham Lincoln.

Mr. Lincoln turned to me and he said, Jim, a house divided shall not stand. When I awoke, I searched the web and found the Amarillo Lodge Villa standing where a tornado of dark money had destroyed that home. It had transformed into a complete planned development with six new units. They included a converted garage, two halves of the original house, an ADU, a junior ADU, and a short-term rental.

All with shared laundry. Some units were called houses, others were condominiums or apartments. Yes it is true while our city waffled about the merits of legalizing or banning short term rentals dark money descended upon Simi Valley and hacked a single home into six separate dwelling units. Now it will take untold amounts of staff time and money to shut down this illegal entity and force it back into legal compliance.

This is a test whether this city under God shall have a new birth of freedom and that a government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from its neighborhoods. Wait no more! It is time for the City Council to stop this ongoing insanity and ban all short-term rentals. This is a true story. Thank you.

The next three to speak is Heather Moss, Jill Abel and Todd, I believe it's Taylor.

Good evening Madam Mayor, Council Members Ms. Argybright and Mr. Ford. My name is Heather Moss, 15 years Simi Valley resident and member of the local business community. I'm here tonight with an update on the issue of short term residential rentals after careful evaluation and public input Simi Valley's Planning Commission voted for zero to recommend a citywide ban on all short term residential rentals The commission reached the decision to ban all STRs after thoroughly weighing the impact STRs have had on our city and considering possible alternatives, including various regulatory approaches.

Their conclusion was clear. Any regulatory scheme allowing STRs would not adequately address or resolve the issues and any STR program would be costlier to implement, regulate, and enforce over time. STRs give a relentless rotation of strangers unfettered access into our neighborhoods. A ban is the only responsible remedy to this chronic intrusion. Residential neighborhoods are meant for residents, not commercial lodging. The Planning Commission recognized that STRs undermine the character safety and stability of our neighborhoods At the same time, Simi Valley faces a housing shortage. Homes turned into transient lodging only worsens the long-term rental and home sales market here. Most STRs are investor owned without an onsite host and are not contributing to our community or our economy.

Simi Valley already has appropriate commercial lodging for visitors. Our city has at least six hotels and motels designed for transient guests, all properly licensed, zoned, inspected, insured, built to rigorous safety standards and required to collect and remit transient occupancy tax. No STR meets these requirements. The city's own statistics show a high hotel vacancy rate nearly 30%, suggesting that STRs are siphoning business from legitimate establishments. This unfairly harms lodging businesses that follow the law and invest in meeting city's safety, zoning and tax requirements. Simi Valley residents want a ban. Hundreds of community members signed petitions supporting that city-wide STR ban.

An ordinance banning all STRs must include accountability for the platforms and facilitators that advertise and arrange them. Liabilities and penalties should apply not only to owners and hosts, but also to the websites and booking venues involved. Cities such as San Francisco have implemented STR bans this way with considerable success. Requiring platforms to cease allowing STR listings and bookings in Simi Valley will be vital to effective enforcement. I volunteer my legal expertise to assist in drafting such an ordinance. The next step is in your hands, please vote to ban short term residential rentals citywide. Ban them. Ban them now. Please put it on the agenda.

Ms. Moss, your time is up. Thank you.

Last of the public statements today is Tyler

I'm sorry, I don't have a Gettysburg address tonight. That was really creative. My name is Jill Abola good evening Mayor Cavanaugh and City Council. I am a cyclist an avid cyclists and proponent of safe cycling and I appreciate some of the past projects like the Arroyo Simi Greenway which I use quite a bit. So I've been following the bicycle master plan update quite a bit, in fact going to the workshops. I've spoken with the consultants and I went to some of the neighborhood council meetings so I've been following this closely and I feel like some of my concerns haven't been addressed in the final document and the resolution that you're going to vote on tonight.

So I'll quickly list these. One, actually Mr. Shaw mentioned the distinction between e-bikes and electric motorcycles and scooters and I feel like that is muddled a bit in the document but also we're not thinking about the future and how that's going to explode in usage. Pedal bicycles, the sales have fallen off the face of the earth and what's going now is not just e-bikes but scooters you can get very inexpensively That's the future of transportation, and those will be in traffic lanes.

The goals of the BMP are noble but somewhat outdated because the reality is we live in a suburb and we use our vehicles to transport our kids to school, to their after-school activities, trips to the store like Costco, and a bike is simply not a substitute for that. And this study doesn't tell us at all if these projects will result in increased bicycle usage which is the stated goal.

And I would say that based on my consumer research background, the data is primarily was collected from cyclists and that biases the outcome of the study. We didn't really, I don't think collected input from drivers or Residents that might be affected by some of these projects. Four of the top 10 projects identified require the removal of traffic lanes and possibly residential parking, so I just want to be sure that if these projects come forward that we gather input from those affected residents and the businesses that might be affected by that.

If I remember, an automobile lane was replaced with a bicycle lane on Fitzgerald Road last year and it resulted in some severe congestion. And I think we reversed some of that work so it was possibly not an effective use of taxpayer money but a major headache and indigestion for the motorists involved. This proposal seems to advocate for removing lanes on Los Angeles Avenue like an entire lane which roughly parallels the Arroyo which doesn't make Since to me and if it causes congestion on Los Angeles Avenue, how is that going to impact our businesses and people getting in and out? And maybe they'll avoid shopping altogether.

So I just urge you to please be sensitive to residents and business concerns before you proceed down this bicycle path and consider the future of the electric motorcycles and scooters and the impact to our traffic before we proceed. Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening Mayor Cavanaugh and council members. My name is Todd Taylor, I've been a Simi Valley resident for over 16 years, a homeowner for 13 years and a small business owner. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight regarding short-term rentals. First i want to acknowledge that many residents have raised legitimate concerns about short-term rentals no one wants party houses excessive noise parking problems or disruptions in their neighborhoods However, complete ban would punish responsible homeowners while failing to address the real issue, nuisance properties. For many families especially with the rising cost of living in California, the ability to occasionally rent their home, ADU or even a room can provide important supplemental income.

That income can help cover mortgages, insurance and unexpected expenses. It can also help families remain in the homes and communities they love. Short-term rentals can also bring visitors to Simi Valley who support our local restaurants shops and businesses Rather than a blanket ban, I encourage the city to consider a balanced regulatory approach that protects neighborhoods while allowing responsible homeowners to operate under clear rules. Another concern I've heard is that regulating short-term rentals may be difficult to enforce. In reality, cities today have several practical tools available and many are already using them successfully.

These include permit and registration requirements limiting rentals to a primary residence, occupancy and parking limits. Quiet hours and a three strike policy where repeat violations result in permit revocation. Current technology along with the recent enactment of SB 346 allows cities to identify listings online and track unregistered properties making enforcement much easier than it was just a few years ago.

The city could also collect transient occupancy tax from short-term rentals, generating additional revenue to help support local services. These types of policies focus enforcement on the small number of problem properties rather than punishing the majority of the responsible homeowners who follow the rules and respect their neighbors. Simi Valley is valued, has always valued both strong neighborhoods and responsible property ownership. And I believe we can craft a policy that protects neighborhoods while treating responsible homeowners fairly. I respectfully encourage the council to pursue reasonable regulation rather than a complete ban so that we can protect neighborhoods while still treating responsible home owners fairly. Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Last public statement this evening is Tyler Barkwell and this is for agenda item number nine.

Good evening, Mayor, Councilman. My name is Tyler Barkwell. I'm a Simi Valley resident of 40 years. Long-time listener, first time caller. I have not been to one city council meeting prior to this and have not addressed the council before this so appreciate your time listening to me. In regards to Agenda 9, the Bicycle Master Plan, I appreciate the outreach that the city has done It's how I first became aware of the updates that were coming due.

Part of that outreach was also supposed to include some information about when the updates were being announced and next steps, so I didn't even find out about this agenda item if it wasn't for a friend of mine that posted that. So moving forward Bicycle master plan addresses a lot of shortcomings that I've seen and addressed during the outreach. I will call out a challenging section of the roads here in Simi, was brought up earlier in one of the other comments. And that's the section between Erringer and Madera.

East of that, a lot of good bicycle infrastructure. From starting at Erringer, that bicycles infrastructure is severely limited and if you were to come from the valley take GPS and say tell me the best bicycle route to come through Simi Valley it would tell you to continue all the way down LA Avenue from east to west If you attempt that, you're going to run into a very dangerous section starting at Erringer where there is a bike route but you are sharing a lane of traffic which presents a very dangerous area. And there's not many other options. There is Cochrane, there's Erringer but you are very limited in the options there so the plan I think correctly calls out install a bike lane there.

It will come at the cost of a traffic lane, but as we've seen I'm involved in another organization that is an advocate for road safety in LA they just had an incident where the bike lane was installed then removed and they saw a cyclist death as a result so take that into consideration when looking at this and moving forward with Taking lanes because safety and cyclist lives shouldn't come at the cost of the convenience for a driver.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Madam Mayor and members of the City Council,

Are there any council members that wish to comment? Mayor Pro Tem Litzter.

I just would like to thank all of you for your comments. Thank you, and very varied and I appreciate it. I'm not going to address so much the bicycle comments right now because we're gonna be talking about it later but all of you have raised very valid issues concerns and there's many much to be discussed about that plan and it does very much affect future bicycling I think in the area Ben thank you for your continual coming to alert us to your beautiful option for homes here in Simi Valley Dale, thank you for being here and speaking about filming.

I don't know that I realized that filming tended to use 12 different locations. That was an education to me. Certainly we ought to scoop at least 10 of those 12 locations. In fact this comes from someone who once used my home in a film because they drove by and said And as a homeowner, that was the loveliest thing. So I would love that for other people as well.

I have to commend the Easons and James and Heather. You have been the most diligent and proactive in terms of your feelings and opinions. And so I just wanna commend you for your constant diligence and happy anniversary if it really has been a year. That's, I commend you. I also want to commend Todd, this is who is also as I understand a first-time caller. Thank you for coming forward with your comments as well and I'll be honest they resonated as I'll share just anecdotally at Christmas time in Utah I rented an SDR so I could be near my children. I found out afterwards it was a family who had cleared out their house that I could use for a week So they could raise money for a cruise they wanted to go on, to buy the airfare. And they had tickets but they just needed so...

You're right, often it is a homeowner that just is looking for a little additional. But that's neither here nor there about where we're going forward with it but I just wanted to say thank you for your perspective as well. Much appreciated. I think that speaks to most of what was... As I said, we'll come back to the whole fun conversation about bicycles in just a little bit but again, thank all of you for your comments and your details and statistics. Always appreciate it.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. Yes everybody thank you for coming out especially those of you first-timers it's not easy standing down there when I'm sitting up here it's really easy but when you get down there I went to the county and tried to speak and I got all nervous so I thank you all for coming out and doing that and sharing your opinions and your thoughts. The bicycle plan has been a long time in the making so it's good to hear that people read it And are concerned and are willing to bring forward things that they think are right or wrong with it. Dale, I will have the name for the Anthony for you after this and the Eason's and Mr. Regulus thank you all and Heather thank you all for coming out. I can't believe you've been here 15 times we're getting to be really good friends so but that's what our community is about is being able to come out and speak and let and share your opinions and thoughts and try and make our community a better place for everybody.

So thank you all tonight

Madam Mayor and members of the City Council, next on the agenda is item 7, the consent calendar. And there is one resolution for your consideration this evening. Consent Item 6, Resolution Number 2026-04, a resolution of the City Council of the city of Simi Valley approving Program Supplement Number A 9 4 2 to implement highway safety improvement program project number H S I P S L dash 5 4 0 5 parentheses. 1 0 6 C P 6 0 0 0, 0, 5, 5. Council member Lister.

Excuse me, Mayor Pro Tem.

That's all right. All in the same. Thank you. I would like to actually pull item number one but rather than discuss it I'd like to actually have it be postponed to the next held over to the next council meeting for discussion there's some questions I have that were I was unable to get the answer on beforehand Might be something that needs to be discussed in closed session But that's the reason is if it doesn't conflict with the deadline of when it has to be filed I and even if it does I'd like to pull

Hey Mr. Paros, can you approach the podium please? What is the deadline that this document has

been

returned

we do have time I believe to have it for one meeting Okay before we can turn it in

okay Thank you. I just want to be sure that what we give it, send to the state is the language that we all agree with and want legally so if that's alright thank you.

Is there any opposition

from the dais?

Okay no so we will postpone item number one. Thank You City Manager. May have approval for the rest of the consent agenda?

I'll move consent on two through six.

We have a first we have a second call for the vote please

Passes unanimously.

Thank you.

Madam Mayor and members of the City Council, next on the agenda is item A, excuse me 8A second reading of ordinance number 1367 amending Simi Valley Municipal Code section 4-3.22 bicycle on sidewalks and side paths. The reading of the ordinance is as follows. Ordinance number 1367, an ordinance of the City of Simi Valley amending section number 4-3.22 of Chapter 3 of Title IV of the Simi Valley Municipal Code Bicycles on Sidewalk and Side Paths

So we're here with the second reading instead of reading the whole thing over again. Everyone has a copy of the amended ordinance as we were instructed from the last meeting highlighting A4 was the changing Rewarding the definition of a class 3 electric bicycle and Then the second final change that was made was under the enforcement number three basically putting language in there, which will allow if they officer removes a vehicle pursuant to our ordinances or 226 51.08 of the Vehicle Code this could require an individual to go to either a Some kind of bicycle safety and training program in order to get their device released from the police department.

Thank you, just to introduce we have Commander Mueller here and Sergeant McAllister. Sergeant McAllister is our traffic sergeant so if you get a ticket he's the one you want to talk to. Councilmember Judge, do you want to comment? I

was just going to move the ordinance for second reading. Second.

I have other people that want to speak first. So we'll go on to the next one, Mayor Pro Tem Litzter.

Thank you. I wanted to thank you for highlighting, so it was very clear the changes. The discussion I wanted just to be clear because on the same calendar we're discussing the bicycle master plan. This ordinance is simply a... I just want to be sure I'm understanding this really has nothing to do per se with the bicycle master plan. It's just a way of enforcement or being Supervising the usage of these vehicles and basically having something in our books that allows a plan going forward.

A desire to educate first, but could you speak to this how it falls within the bicycle master plan or does not?

Yeah, the Commander Mueller read the Bicycle Master Plan. The ordinance that we're doing- You read it twice?

Well done!

The ordinance is basically we're updating to add the electric bicycle definitions in the ordinance and then also some of the other amendments that California passed recently to allow us to do enforcement and to seize a Class 3 bike or an electric motorcycle or someone riding outside of a Class 3. So that's kind of... We just put those in the ordinance to give us a little more authority or enforcement capability

And you are correct. The ordinance stands alone per se, the Bicycle Master Plan, the marriage if you will has to do with education. The Bicycle Master Plan has multiple pages where education is part of the component and that's something we would work alongside of Bicycle Master Plan with implementing.

Very good

thank you for that. Council Member Ayala?

Thank you and so this passes tonight when does it become effective?

30

days after. So within the 30 days, is that where we make sure that everyone's aware? We do like outreach and all that great stuff? Absolutely. All right I mean I'm good we spent a lot of time last time talking about this there weren't many changes so thank you for that update.

Thank You. Councilmember Judge did you want to actually oh sorry commander

Yes, you are correct. Once we have the second reading and it's approved, we will do Nixles. We will put out education ad nauseum for the next 30 days. I mean, we don't want to surprise anybody. Education is the ultimate goal here.

Council Member Judge?

Move to adopt Ordinance Number 1367 with modifications. Second.

We have a first and second call for the vote please. It disappeared.

Vote passes unanimously,

thank you.

Madam Mayor and members of the City Council, next on the agenda item is 9A. Adopt a resolution approving the 2025 Bicycle Master Plan. The reading of the resolution is as followed. Resolution number 2026-05, a resolution of the city The City Council of City of Simi Valley adopting the 2025 City of Simi Valley Bicycle Master Plan. Public Works Director Ron Fujiwaki is here to present this item.

Good evening Mayor Cavanaugh and council members. Tonight we are pleased to present the 2025 Bicycle Master Plan. Joining me this evening from city staff is Justin Link, our Principal Engineer and City Traffic Engineer. And from our consulting firm CR Associates Andrew Prescott, Senior Transportation Planner and Project Manager. Before we begin I do want to somewhat emphasize that this is kind of a... The bicycle master plan is a blueprint for what would be ideal in terms of bicycling throughout the city, co-mingling with vehicles and trying to make it as safe as possible. As well as provide connections for various locations and things that a bicyclist might want to go to.

Any particular project that comes out of this plan will be brought back, will be further analyzed in terms of some of its impacts including potential loss of traffic lanes and will be brought back to the council for any further consideration. So with that let me turn it over to Andrew to make our presentation

Thank you. Good evening, Mayor, Councilmembers, city staff, members of the public. Thank you for the opportunity to present the City of Simi Valley Bicycle Master Plan this evening. So we'll give a quick background on the project and overview of existing conditions findings as well as the community outreach process. We'll highlight the various recommendation categories that the plan touches on, describe prioritization and implementation steps, and then open it up for questions.

So a little background on the project, what is a bicycle master plan? It really serves to guide the development of the city's bicycle infrastructure as well as other investments and things like programmatic supporting programs like we heard about this evening. Some of the common elements or recommendations that might consist of include goals, policies, infrastructure recommendations, educational programs, amenities and other things to help make bicycling more safe, more accessible and convenient.