Report Questioned : 2nd Suit Filed to Block New Houses on Fair Site

A second lawsuit has been filed against Los Angeles County in an effort to block construction of 150 houses on the former site of the Renaissance Pleasure Faire in Agoura.

The suit was filed Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court by the Friends of the Santa Monica Mountains, a conservation group. It followed a similar suit filed against the county last week by the Sierra Club and the Las Virgenes Homeowners Federation.

Both lawsuits seek a court order to overturn the March 2 decision by the county Board of Supervisors to allow construction of houses on the 320-acre site near Cornell and Wagon roads.

The suits allege that the project’s environmental impact report, which the county had decided was required by the California Environmental Quality Act, did not adequately assess the project’s effect on grading, drainage and oak trees, among other things.

They also charge that the environmental report did not explain how developer Brian Heller concluded that the land’s topography could accommodate more than the 103 homes allowed by the county’s general plan.

The county board accepted Heller’s conclusion when it voted 3 to 1 to allow 150 homes instead of 103.

Project Defended

Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who represents the area, has defended the development as “a sensitively designed project that has the support of many of the immediate neighbors.” Heller sought 159 houses on the land, but Antonovich had that number reduced to 150 to allow room for open space between the homes and adjacent National Park Service property at Paramount Ranch.

The National Park Service has identified the site as its top priority for inclusion in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, a state parks agency that buys and administers land for the national park, wants to buy the land. But Heller, who has formed a partnership with landowner Arthur Whizin to develop the property, has been unwilling to sell.

Gregory A. Hile, an Orange County lawyer representing the Friends of the Santa Monica Mountains, said the two similar lawsuits could be consolidated by a judge.

Susan Nelson, president of the Friends of the Santa Monica Mountains, said the group filed suit partly because of concerns that the Las Virgenes Homeowners Federation, a plaintiff in the other lawsuit, did not protest the project in its early stages.

By the time the project reached the board for a decision, the federation was strongly opposing it. But the federation should have acted earlier, Nelson said.

Dave Brown, federation vice president, would not comment on Nelson’s characterization. But he noted that the suits were similar and said of the latest suit: “It certainly helps that they are saying they want to reinforce what we’re doing.”