Court upholds mountain protection ordinance

On March 8, the 2nd District Court of Appeal upheld the Los Angeles County's Grading and Significant Ridgeline Ordinance, a measure championed by Board of Supervisors Chairman Zev Yaroslavsky.

The ordinance protects the Santa Monica Mountains by preserving critical ridgelines and scenic vistas from overdevelopment and rigorously scrutinizing large grading projects.

In a unanimous opinion written by Justice Richard M. Mosk, the appellate court affirmed an earlier ruling by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Dzintra Janavs, which rejected legal and technical arguments brought by developers and landowners against the ordinance.

Yaroslavsky hailed the Mosk ruling as "a clear vote of confidence in the county's ongoing effort to protect the Santa Monica Mountains from the wrong kind of development."

He also cited fire dangers posed by excessive grading and building too close to ridgelines, noting that an Orange County brush fire over the weekend forced the evacuation of more than 200 homes in Anaheim's Hidden Canyon neighborhood.

Orange County Fire Authority Chief Ed Fleming described the blaze as "a very dangerous fire fight" in rugged terrain where ridgetop homes were at particular risk because "fire picks up speed as it heads up the hill."

The Board of Supervisors enacted the Grading and Significant Ridgeline Ordinance in 2004 as a way to help implement the Santa Monica Mountains North Area Plan, which protects 33 square miles of unincorporated land in the northern part of the Santa Monica Mountains.

Yaroslavsky, who sponsored the measure, said at the time that its adoption was a "historic victory for the Santa Monica Mountains" that would prevent land speculators from "sawing off a mountain ridge" by requiring that development be kept at least 50 vertical feet and 50 horizontal feet away from significant ridgelines.