Everyone wins-and loses

Residents tired of over-development are celebrating victory this week in their struggle to keep new home construction under control.

Tuesday, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a scaled down version of the North Area Plan, the county’s first major land use blueprint in 20 years.

But the outcome isn’t as cut and dried-or as beneficial-as some people might think.

Land use management is a zero-sum game, a tradeoff. While the number of new homes in the 32 square-mile area from Hidden Hills to Westlake Village is reduced from 5,400 under the old Santa Monica Mountains Plan to 3,700 under the North Area Plan-a plus for the local environment-the reduction in homes could bring about other hardships.

For one, there will be no new elementary school to serve the eastern portion of Las Virgenes Unified School District.

Warner Financial, the Agoura Hills developer that wanted to build 106 homes near Saratoga Hills in Calabasas, saw its limit drop from 106 homes to fewer than 30 under the plan. That reduction means the developer can no longer afford to provide a site for an elementary school that would relieve overcrowding at Lupin Hill Elementary School in Calabasas.

Because housing densities have been cut across the board, finding affordable land for a new school now becomes nearly impossible.

Finding affordable homes will become equally difficult.

Faced with fewer homes to build, developers are opting for more expensive models to meet their balance sheets, forcing average home costs to rise.

Moreover, the reduction in homes might actually lead to an increase in traffic, not a decrease.

Middle income families who work here (but can’t afford the cost of housing) will be forced to commute from cheaper outlying or inner-city areas, putting more vehicles on already overburdened freeways.

While we laud the county in its approval of the North Area Plan, we still wonder if the plan’s long-term benefits are everything they’re cracked up to be.