Homeowners Seek Stricter L.A. County Development Limits

Homeowners from the Santa Clarita Valley and Agoura on Thursday urged the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission to strengthen a proposed plan to restrict growth in those areas.

The residents told the planning commissioners that the plan, which would require closer monitoring of the effects of proposed developments, contains a loophole that would permit builders to sidestep growth restrictions.

The plan has been proposed as a settlement of a 6-year-old court case. The plaintiff in the case is a coalition of civic and environmental groups who were disturbed at the rate of growth in the county’s bustling unincorporated areas.

The settlement would affect growth in the Santa Clarita Valley, the Santa Monica Mountains, Malibu, the Antelope Valley and the East San Gabriel Valley.

Under the settlement, the county Board of Supervisors generally would be required to deny a development proposal if a sophisticated computer monitoring system determines that the project would overtax community services.

The homeowners, however, said they object to a provision that would allow supervisors to approve a project, even if it fails the computer analysis, if they determine that “overriding considerations” make it necessary.

Jan Heidt, spokeswoman for the Santa Clarita Homeowners Coalition, complained that growth in the area is too rapid and urged that the “overriding considerations” provision be struck.

“I’m pretty upset about what’s going on in the Santa Clarita Valley,” she said. “We don’t think the planning process is working for us.”

Lisa Foster, an attorney for the Center for Law in the Public Interest, which filed the lawsuit, echoed the homeowners’ sentiments about the alleged loophole.

“It will allow a lot of development to take place in certain areas where it shouldn’t take place,” she contended.

Thursday’s planning commission hearing was just an interim step in the plan’s approval. The commission will recommend to the Board of Supervisors whether changes should be made to the plan, and the supervisors have scheduled a public hearing on the issue March 26.

The planning commission took the homeowners’ suggestions under advisement without discussion, and is expected to vote on the matter Wednesday.

Everyone who testified urged the planning commission to endorse the proposed court settlement with modifications. No developers spoke.

About 15 residents from the Santa Clarita Valley and Agoura attended the commission meeting. They promised a bigger turnout at the supervisors’ public hearing, and also said they would lobby officials on the issue.

“We’re going to generate another batch of letters,” promised Anna Tejada of the Old Agoura Valley Homeowners Assn., whose members sent about 30 letters to the commission urging modification of the plan.