Homeowners ask, Las Virgenes HOAs answer

The following article appeared in the recent monthly newsletter of the Las Virgenes Homeowners Federation, the largest collection of HOAs in the region.

Whatever happened to those proposed homes on the ridgeline east of Mulholland?

Land development consultant Don Schmitz represented several landowners on the ridgeline east of Mulholland Highway behind Old Topanga, Calabasas Highlands, and Upper Cold Creek who proposed to build homes along the Summitto-Summit Motorway between Old Topanga Canyon Road and Calabasas Peak.

Schmitz helped these landowners get plot plans approved just before adoption of the Los Angeles County Grading and Ridgeline Ordinance in early 2005. It appears the plan was to pave the Summit-to-Summit Motorway to provide access to the lots and proposed ridgeline homes—some of them two or three miles to the south along the ridge.

Several attempts were made to persuade communities and residents to give Schmitz's clients access from the ridge to Mulholland and Old Topanga through Mountain Park Estates, Calabasas Highlands and Old Topanga (County), but these efforts were unsuccessful. Schmitz and his clients then retained attorney Fred Gaines and sued the county.

Recently, Schmitz, Gaines, et. al. dropped their lawsuit. After three years apparently the plot plans have expired and road access, subdivision and development plans for the ridge top lots south of Calabasas Highlands appear to have been abandoned, at least for now.

However, development on several lots above Old Topanga Canyon Road (close to where Old Topanga Canyon crosses the ridgeline) are still being pursued. This ridge top development would take access off Old Topanga Canyon Road and the Summit-to-Summit Motorway. The developers are apparently seeking a variance from the County, under the Grading and Ridgeline Ordinance, that would allow them to build their homes directly on the ridgetop.

Whatever happened to the Ridgeline Ordinance?

Attorney Frank Angel called a few days ago to call our attention to a large home under construction on the ridgeline a few hundred yards northeast of the intersection of Kanan and Mulholland across from Rocky Oaks Park.

The North Area Plan, adopted in 2000, bans ridgeline development, and the Grading and Ridgeline Ordinance, which went into effect in January, 2005, specifically bans development within 50 feet of a major ridgeline. Since the ridgeline in question is the main dividing ridge of the Santa Monica Mountains, one would assume it would qualify as a "major ridgeline." So, what is going on here?

First of all, the North Area Plan was a good statement of an important planning policy, but it had no "teeth" until there was an ordinance in place to enforce it. Despite the Grading and Ridgeline Ordinance, going into effect in January 2005, any plot plans approved before that date were good for three more years and, if the owner had performed any work on the property, such as grading a pad, the plot plan would become vested even after the three years were up.

According to Ben Saltsman, Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky's planning deputy, there are still a few approved plot plans out there that have not yet built out, including two or three with graded pads, most of them in Topanga. Saltsman thinks that this house under construction at Kanan and Muholland may be just about the last one to build out in our area.

What about those 81 homes in Cold Creek?

Many of you probably remember the 81 homes approved on the rugged ridgeline north of Mulholland in Cold Creek in 1988. In the 20 years that have elapsed since the original county approval, developer Brian Boudreau apparently never completed the final stage of the tract approval by going through the process of recording the 81home tract map.

Even after Boudreau had received several extensions of the deadline for recording the tract, the tract map still remained unrecorded until recently when he started working in earnest on the paperwork for recording the first eight lots, hoping this would keep the approval of the entire 81-home tract alive.

Apparently he failed to get the water district to sign off on one part of his map before the final deadline for recordation.

County lawyers subsequently ruled that the recordation had not been completed before the deadline had passed, and, therefore, the 1988 approval had expired.

At last report, Boudreau and his attorney, Fred Gaines, had filed suit against the county for $81 million.

The preceding article does not reflect the views or opinions of The Acorn newspaper. Learn more about the Las Virgenes Federation at www.lvhf.org.