Access Road Plan Unsafe, Police Say

Residents of Santa Susana Knolls who are opposed to designating an emergency access road through their community have received the support of the Simi Valley Police Department, which deemed Oak Knolls Road unsafe during an evacuation.

At a meeting Wednesday of the ad-hoc Parker Ranch Committee, Police Sgt. Bob Gardner said the department could not support the use of the road in case of an emergency.

“Oak Knolls, in the best circumstances, is a substandard road,” Gardner said.

The planned Parker Ranch development is expected to bring 195 homes and a three-story, 324-unit apartment complex southeast of the Simi Valley Metrolink station. The Police Department reviewed safety issues of the developer’s plans.

Santa Susana Knolls is in an unincorporated portion of Ventura County just outside Simi Valley.

“We have to plan for the worst case that could happen,” Gardner said.

Such a case might be a freight train derailing, blocking track crossings and spilling hazardous materials, Gardner said. If a toxic plume blew into the Parker Ranch development, 700 to 800 vehicles would need to evacuate on the east end while emergency vehicles entered the development the same way, he said.

“It’s a physical impossibility to do that,” Gardner said. “If we have to get all those people out, we need to have the space to do it, and Oak Knolls doesn’t provide that.’

Emergency personnel typically prefer an evacuation road at least 24 feet wide. Oak Knolls Road winds around corners and narrows to 11 feet in places, Gardner said.

“We have a real potential for a bottleneck,” he said. “We create a potential for trapping a lot of people in here. It’s not an easy place to navigate in the best of circumstances.”

Gardner’s comments were welcome news to some Santa Susana Knolls residents who have been concerned about the evacuation capabilities of Oak Knolls Road.

“The trash man can barely get around the corners at the Knolls,” said Dawn Kowalski. “It’s just comical that anybody could sit there and believe that was a safe access road.”

In an area-wide emergency, Parker Ranch vehicles would flow into Santa Susana Knolls, while Rocketdyne employees would use Black Canyon Road, Kowalski said. The crush of traffic would paralyze Susana Knolls and increase the danger, she said.