Wood Ranch

In Spanish times the land was a ranch called Cañada Verde. Adrian and Emma Wood bought its two halves and put them back together in 1942, and after Adrian Wood died in 1971 the access road was renamed Madera, Spanish for wood. Levenstein's first choice of name, Madera Ranch, was already taken, so the project became Wood Ranch. The city adopted the Wood Ranch Specific Plan in 1980 and amended it repeatedly through 2013. It covers the 3,010 acres on the Simi Valley side of the southern ridgeline, caps housing at 4,026 units plus 206 senior units, and keeps about three-quarters of the land as open space, golf course and parks.

The plan clusters homes in four villages divided by ridges and open space, with the golf course, a 1985 Ted Robinson design, at the center. Country Club Village, along Madera Road and Country Club Drive, holds most of the condominiums, apartments and senior housing, the shopping center, and Regalia and The Fairways west of the course. Lake Park Village, south and east of the course, centers on Rancho Madera Community Park, home of the park district's winter Snowfest. Sycamore Canyon Village, planned for families, has the most for-sale homes and Wood Ranch Elementary. Long Canyon, the most rural, has its own page. Wood Ranch and Long Canyon were both ordered to evacuate during the 2018 Woolsey Fire.

The lay of the land

Golf-course master plan on the former Wood family ranch: four villages separated by open-space ridges, with homes kept off the steepest slopes and trails into the surrounding hills

Specific plan history: The City Council adopted the Wood Ranch Specific Plan (SP-S-1) on Aug. 11, 1980 (Resolution 80-125), after Planning Commission action in July 1980. Amendments followed in 1981, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1996, 1997, 1998 and 2003, and the city republished the plan in July 2003. Amendment 13 (Resolution 2013-30, July 1, 2013) let the day-care site at 1070–1080 Country Club Drive, at the Madera Road corner, also hold neighborhood shops and offices. Land and open space: The ranch covered about 3,749 acres. The plan applies to the 3,009.68 acres in Simi Valley's sphere of interest; the rest, beyond the southernmost ridgeline, fell in Thousand Oaks' sphere. It sets aside 756 acres for housing, about 8 for a neighborhood shopping center, 265 for community recreation (a 208-acre golf course, a 6.6-acre clubhouse, an 8.9-acre private lake park and a 41-acre equestrian center), 46 for public parks, 9.4 for an elementary school and 1,856, about 62 percent, for open space: 430 acres of public open space, 1,017 of private open space and 409 of farm-style ranch lots. The plan puts the golf course on the Bard Reservoir flood inundation area and the Sycamore Dam retention area and keeps homes outside those limits. In 2001 the Long Canyon owners transferred 463 acres of the hills south of Long Canyon Road to the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, with 506 more to follow, for a 969-acre Wood Ranch Open Space Park. Housing: The plan's 4,026 units are 3,882 assigned units plus a 144-unit density bonus granted for 338 required moderate- and low-income homes. A 1997 amendment, revised in 2003, added up to 206 senior units in Planning Unit 8A. Assigned units by village: Country Club 1,561 (plus the 206 senior units), Lake Park 567, Sycamore Canyon 1,194 and Long Canyon 689, with a few more on farm-style ranch lots in the open space. The plan projected about 12,600 residents at buildout. Planning units: Judging by unit counts and locations, Country Club Village's Planning Unit 2 at the west end (123 units) covers Regalia; Units 3 and 5 (111 and 142) match The Fairways' Tracts 4107 and 4108; Unit 6 (156) fits Village on the Green; Units 10 and 11 (90 and 128) match Country Villas I and II; Unit 13 (39) is Laurelwood; Unit 12 (37, unbuilt in 2003) became Pinnacle; and the western part of senior Unit 8A (58) became the Wood Ranch Senior Condominiums. Units 4, 7 and 9 along Madera Road are high- and very-high-density blocks for townhomes or apartments, 733 units in all and fully built by 2003; Unit 8 is the 8.17-acre shopping center, and Unit 1 is the fire-station site at 1050 Country Club Drive. The developer provided both a temporary and a permanent station site as a condition of the tract: Ventura County Fire Station 44 opened on March 5, 1989, in a temporary station on open land near what is now Country Club Drive and Mahogany Lane, and the permanent station went into service on March 4, 1991. Also called the Wood Ranch Fire Station, it covers western Simi Valley and northeastern Thousand Oaks, including the Reagan Library. In Lake Park Village, Unit 15 is the 25-acre park site, Unit 23 the private lake park and Units 18 and 20 (77 and 43) the two Greens tracts. In Sycamore Canyon Village, Unit 43 is the 9.4-acre school site, Unit 42 an 8.2-acre park beside it and Unit 52 (78) Summerside. Long Canyon Village has 246 acres, 689 assigned units, a 9.5-acre park and the equestrian center site. Boundaries: Rancho Madera (Tract 5124) and Tract 4313 sit on the north side of Madera Road, outside the plan boundary, which follows the road's centerline, so the plan's counts leave them out. To the east, the plan's Lake Park Village also takes in Planning Units 26 to 28 along the ranch's eastern boundary. Tract 5250, whose map calls its site 'PU 28 of Wood Ranch,' and, by its location and its developer's name, Morrison Estates (Tract 3798) were built there; this guide lists both under Coyote Hills. Trails and design: The plan calls for trails linking all the villages and parks: walking paths at least 4 feet wide (the city approved a single 14-foot combined walking and bike path in place of two separate paths), 10-foot asphalt bike paths and 14-foot decomposed-granite equestrian trails that connect to neighboring developments and the open hills. Homes are clustered so slopes over 20 percent can stay natural, lots are sorted into three grading types, from flat pads to hillside lots where only the driveway and foundations may be cut, and graded slopes must be rounded and curved to look natural. View windows are kept along Madera Road and First Street, now Long Canyon Road. Planting is to be native, drought-tolerant and fire-resistant near open space, wood roofs are barred in Fire Zone IV, and significant oaks and sycamores are to be kept where feasible. The architecture guidelines ask that no single style dominate and that each enclave have its own blend of forms and materials. Phasing: Building was planned in eight phases, starting with the main entrance, part of the Madera Road frontage, the golf course and Lake Park Village, moving south along Wood Ranch Parkway into Sycamore Canyon, and finishing in Long Canyon after First Street was extended. The plan barred building in Long Canyon until a fire station on the Country Club Drive site was built and staffed, and required the Sycamore Canyon school to be under construction before the 251st building permit in the Long Canyon phases. Rancho Madera names two different places here: a 1999 neighborhood at the north end of Wood Ranch Parkway, and the community park on Lake Park Drive. Long Canyon, Wood Ranch's fourth village, has its own page.