North Area Plan approved by supervisors

North Area
Plan approved by
supervisors

Answering the call to keep local development in check, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors gave approval Tuesday to a scaled-down version of the Santa Monica Mountains North Area Plan, the county’s first major land use plan in 20 years.

Supervisors voted 5-0 to allow 3,700 new homes in the North Area Plan study area, a 32 square-mile stretch of pristine, unincorporated land between Hidden Hills and Westlake Village. The vote defeated an 11th-hour effort by developers and the county’s Planning Commission to increase the number to 3,900.

"I was thinking they would have compromised a bit," said Lee Stark, the county administrator in charge of writing the plan.

But anti-development forces were in no mood to bargain.

"The upzonings done by the Regional Planning Commission are not consistent with the plan," said Joe Edmiston, director of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy.

A coalition of more than 200 landowners, environmentalists and representatives from local cities, including Agoura Hills and Calabasas, appealed to the supervisors at their downtown meeting to accept a 1999 version of the North Area Plan that called for fewer homes.

"It makes absolutely no sense that the county should ignore its own recommendations when it comes to preserving the unique habitat of the Santa Monica Mountains," said Colleen Holmes, a member of the Cornell Preservation Organization.

U.S. Reps. Brad Sherman (D-Woodland Hills), Henry Waxman (D-Los Angeles) and Howard Berman (D-Mission Hills) also submitted a request to keep density down.

Under the watchful eye of local cities, the National Park Service, Las Virgenes Unified School District and Las Virgenes Municipal Water District, the North Area Plan reached final approval after more than six years in the making.

The plan grew out of concern for rampant development in rural areas, which resulted in traffic, water quality and sewage treatment problems, as well as school overcrowding.

"The selfish whims of the few should not alter the direction of the majority," said Gene Talmadge, a planning administrator for the water district.

Highlights of the North Area Plan include:

•Letting the land, not money interests, dictate the intensity of the development. The plan requires new development to conform to the topography rather than change it.

•Removing loopholes in the calculation of net area and project densities.

•Protecting wildlife habitats and habitat linkages.

•Simplification of land-use designations

In 1,500 acres of the 21,000-acre plan, the density reduction means only one home per 20 acres can be built instead of one home per 10 acres.

Warner Financial, a 170-acre development next to Saratoga Hills in Calabasas, saw its allotment reduced from 106 homes to 23 under the final action. Don Dusablon, a Warner Financial partner, said the reduction means he can no longer afford to provide a site for an elementary school and that the overall cost of the homes will go up.

"The school’s out and a lot of kids are going to pay for it," Dusablon said.

"It means more multi-million dollar estates. It just keeps the average person from being able to afford a home," Dusablon added.

Also cut was Vance Moran’s Live Oak Ranch, a proposed 108-home development near the junction of Kanan Road and Cornell Road in Agoura.

Moran, who was allowed 129 homes under the county’s old Malibu/Santa Monica Mountains Plan, will get just 81 homes.

The Cornell organization said Live Oak Ranch sought more homes because the parcel already had been "degraded by prior grading." But the grading was done illegally, the organization alleged.

Some landowners said the plan didn’t give an accurate portrayal of how many homes their parcels could support.

The Polk Bros. Foundation, a charity group that owns 60 acres of undeveloped land near Seminole Springs south of Agoura, described their property "as flat and as useable as any."

The North Area Plan cut the density on the property from 20 homes to just six.

Cary Lowe, a spokesperson for Polk, said the land was to be sold to raise money for charity, but he said, "Obviously the value is gutted under the current plan."

Stark said the county’s existing hillside management ordinance would have reduced the size of many of the developments regardless of the North Area Plan.

"Drawing that map is a subjective thing to begin with and [Polk] was one of those borderline cases.

While the plan received overall applause, the equestrian lobby felt their recreational and horse boarding needs went ignored.

Stark said language was added to the plan that eased some of the restrictions horse owners faced.