Porter Ranch Developer Opposes Cut in Business Area

The development firm behind a $2-billion residential and commercial plan for Porter Ranch said Monday that it opposes Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson’s recommendation for a 20% cut in the proposal’s commercial area.

In a letter to the Planning Commission released Monday by the Porter Ranch Development Co., the firm also said it has agreed “in principle” to help pay for a bridge across Aliso Canyon near the development site. Bernson and city transportation officials have said the bridge and completion of Sesnon Boulevard will be needed to ease future traffic in the area.

“We’re not going to fight the city . . . nor are we going to fight the councilman,” Robert M. Wilkinson, chief lobbyist for Porter Ranch Development, said in an interview. “If that is what is required, we’ll have to live with it.”

The Planning Commission is scheduled Thursday to consider the proposal, endorsed by a citizens committee appointed by Bernson, for 7.5 million square feet of commercial space, 2,195 single-family homes and 800 multifamily housing units. The development in the hills north of the Simi Valley Freeway in Chatsworth would include a shopping mall the size of the Northridge Fashion Center and office buildings up to 15 stories high. It would be built over a 20- to 30-year period.

But Bernson has recommended cutting the commercial area to about 6 million square feet. He also called for buildings no higher than 12 stories and reduction of the height limit in one area of the development from 15 stories to 10.

Bernson, who could not be reached for comment Monday, told the Planning Commission last month that the reductions were “necessary to protect and ensure the future integrity of our community.”

Porter Ranch Development’s objections to the cuts were contained in a letter from its consulting firm, Engineering Technology, to the commission.

“Market and economic studies justify the need for the commercial floor area. . . ,” the letter said. Regarding the building heights that would be allowed in the foothills, the letter said the 15-story limit provided for “more open space and a more interesting skyline.”

Porter Ranch Development disagreed with suggestions by the City Planning Department that part of the project be changed from office buildings to multifamily housing. The developer also disagreed with planners’ recommendations that the commercial area be held to 1.5 million square feet until an expansion of the Simi Valley Freeway receives state funding.

Neighborhood stores and the shopping mall are in the first phase of commercial buildings the developer proposes, and together they exceed 1.5 million square feet, Wilkinson said. The 1.5-million-square-foot threshold should apply only to the office space, not the retail, he said.

The Aliso Canyon bridge and Sesnon Boulevard completion have a projected cost of $9.5 million, according to city officials. Bernson has proposed using a surplus from another bridge project that the city is constructing in Northridge to pay $2 million of the cost.

Porter Ranch Development’s letter said the company expects to pay “our fair share,” but was not more specific.

“I assume it’s not the whole thing,” Wilkinson said. “. . . the ballgame is all in the Planning Commission’s hands.”

RELATED STORY: Page 12