Luxury Home Proposal for Santa Susana Pass Assailed : Project Imperils Rare Wildflower, Environmentalists Say

Environmentalists charged Thursday that a proposed subdivision in the Santa Susana Pass above Chatsworth could lead to the extinction of a rare native wildflower.

The primary home of the Santa Susana tarweed would be covered over by a 71-lot luxury home development proposed for a rugged, 338-acre site north of the Simi Valley Freeway, Los Angeles County supervisors were told.

The shrublike plant, known to botanists as Hemizonia minthornii, produces an unusual yellow blossom in the late summer. It thrives around a natural spring that flows year-round on the mountain site, biologists and naturalists testified.

Ecologists said that the spring, long viewed as an important watering hole for mountain wildlife, is not even shown on the project’s development maps.

However, Lee Jones, an environmental consultant for the developer, a Chatsworth company called Indian Wells Estates Inc., told supervisors that the housing project is designed to preserve as much of the tarweed as possible.

Jones said provisions would be made to try to transplant tarweed out of the way of house-builders. “This project epitomizes a new era of site sensitivity,” added project manager Wendy Brogin.

Despite their assertions, supervisors delayed a vote on a conditional-use permit sought by the developer, and ordered county planners to investigate the environmentalists’ charges by Feb. 12.

Barbara Johnson, a Canoga Park resident representing the Santa Susana Mountain Park Assn., said naturalists were “astounded” that county planning experts did not notice that Hialeah Springs were omitted from the development plans.

“The housing pads would completely surround Hialeah Springs,” Johnson complained. “There’s no way wildlife will be able to get to the springs.”

Other ecologists criticized county planners for not requiring a detailed environmental assessment of the project site, which is marked by spectacular rock outcroppings that have served as backdrop to hundreds of movies.

Sherry Teresa, a wildlife biologist for the state Department of Fish and Game, said the county earlier recognized the area’s environmental sensitivity by designating two parts of the project site as significant ecological areas. The designation was made because of the rare plants and because the site is an important wildlife migration corridor, she said.

Ninety-three oaks on the rocky site would be felled under the development plan, said Helen Treend, president of the Oak Tree Coalition.