Porter Ranch Project: Developer’s Folly

If the Los Angeles city fathers are silly enough to approve the proposed huge Chatsworth-Porter Ranch project, I predict that the quality of life will dramatically decline for every person living north of Roscoe Boulevard and west of Interstate 405. That’s how big an area it will negatively affect.

Who can be naive enough to believe the folly being foisted on us by the developer, such as predictions that adding another 155,000 car trips per day will result in less traffic congestion than we now have without them. Their “traffic mitigation plan,” which will supposedly produce this miracle, includes some new stripes on certain streets and some computerized traffic lights. Too bad they forgot to include one minor item--enough roadway surface to hold all the cars.

It is unfortunate that L.A. planners never learn from their past mistakes. One look at the Ventura Freeway, clogged from end to end by the 20-year buildup of Warner Ranch and Ventura Boulevard, shows what the north Valley will look like in the years ahead, traffic congestion, high-rises and all.

At recent public hearings, allies of the developer repeatedly said how nice it will be to have nearby Schubert-type theaters, shopping and parks in Porter Ranch. If that’s what they want, I have a suggestion for them: Move back East to Manhattan. They’ll find theaters no one can afford to attend and huge parks unsafe for anyone without previous commando training.

As for me, I left the original (pricey) Schubert Theater and Central Park of Manhattan 20 years ago so I could live in a suburban community where my life style included low-density housing, equestrian and other outdoor recreational facilities, non-crowded streets and unspoiled foothills. That’s the Chatsworth I was promised when I moved here, and that’s the one every resident I’ve talked to still wants.

I’m not against sensible growth, and I am not a member of the Sierra Club or any other similar organization, but I wonder if we’ll ever find a vaccine for the strange disease that seems to afflict every California land developer--you know, the one that causes them to hyperventilate and have recurring nightmares every time they run across an unused piece of land, an unclogged road or a place where things are just fine the way they are now.

I’m not fooled by the tactics being used to ramrod this project through the approval cycle: It was kept a secret until just a few months ago, years after the developer bought some cheap land zoned for low-density housing and concocted a get-rich scheme whereby if he got the zoning changed to include millions of square feet of commercial use, he’d make millions, or perhaps close to billions. No, he’s using a sham of asking for the stars and settling for the moon. They’ll cut it down a million or so square feet, but the congestion will remain.

Hal Bernson faces a problem though. His so-called Citizens Advisory Committee orchestrated this fiasco and almost all the area’s residents are against it. As soon as he realizes how many, look for him to make a back-room deal whereby he votes against it to save face, while (according to the predicted script), all his fellow councilmen vote it in. Hal, baby, it won’t work!

Haven’t we got enough traffic and other problems in L.A. already? Why create more until we fix them? The night before the mayoral election, defeated candidate Baxter Ward said we should hang big signs reading “Closed for Repair” on all roads entering Los Angeles. What a delightfully refreshing approach.

DAVID PELTZ

Chatsworth