Opponents hope to send Triangle Ranch back to square one

A group of area residents has hired noted Santa Monica environmental lawyer Frank Angel to carry the fight against Triangle Ranch, a 71-home development in unincorporated Los Angeles County near Kanan and Cornell roads in rural Agoura.

Angel helped defeat Ahmanson Ranch, the proposed 3,000-home mini-city in eastern Ventura County.

The Los Angeles County Regional Planning Department sent the developers back to the drawing board at least twice, rejecting the density of Triangle Ranch because it didn't fit within the confines of the Santa Monica Mountains North Area Plan, which was designed to rein in rampant development in rural areas.

Spokesman Steve Hess and residents from the Cornell neighborhood are concerned about why the developers have not heeded the agency's recommendations.

"We want a proper response to the application (from the planning department)," Hess said.

The 320-acre property is located on Cornell Road behind the county fire station in Medea Valley. The area is home to the endangered plant Lyons Pentachaeta, or pygmy daisy, and is a riparian habitat for a variety of wildlife and native plants.

The regional planning department conducted a public hearing on the project yesterday.

Angel said there are "significant issues" with the effect of the project on Malibu Creek and other environmental issues.

"This battle is only in its beginning stages," Angel said.

Matt Heerde, the lead attorney on the case, said that even if the developer reduces the size of the project to 44 homes as per the recommendation of the planning department, opposition from local residents and environmentalists will remain.

"Our clients are opposed to any project with a footprint of 44 homes that needlessly degrades water quality, damages important habitat and encroaches on endangered species," Heerde said.

Environmentalists believe that there is more to protect in the Santa Monica Mountains than the pygmy daisy.

The range has been identified as one of only five Mediterranean ecosystems in the world. Of all the world's biomes the Mediterranean is the rarest, experts say.

"Our clients are worried about a host of environmental issues," Heerde said. "As for water quality, one of the concerns (is) for the prevention of additional pollution in Medea Creek, which runs through the middle of the project."

Heerde said the creek is already polluted with unacceptable levels of bacteria, and additional pollutants from a development will exacerbate the problem by adding nitrates and phosphates from pesticides and fertilizers.

Heerde also said wildlife species use the Medea Creek and Lindero Creek channels as a migration corridor. Development around the Medea Creek channel would constrain the movement, he said.

Heerde believes the developers did not prepare an adequate environmental impact report for Triangle Ranch.

"A legally adequate EIR is the cornerstone of the California Environmental Quality Act," Heerde said. "It ensures that the county will take a hard look at the environmental impacts of the development before it is approved."

An Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission hearing regarding the development was scheduled for yesterday, but was postponed until a future date.

In a Nutshell

The Sage development group proposes to build 71 custom homes on 54 acres of a 320-acre site in the rural Cornell area south of Agoura Hills.

Although 266 acres would be preserved as open space, the Triangle Ranch development is still considered too large under county guidelines, which allow for only 44 homes.