Lancaster Ousts Planner Who Angered Citizens : Growth: Residents of nearby Quartz Hill, already fighting development, say they resent being told that their rural way of life is a thing of the past.

The kind of growth-vs.-rural lifestyle disputes that once dominated San Fernando Valley politics appear to have traveled--along with homeowners, developers and urban problems--up the Antelope Valley Freeway to Lancaster.

Lancaster Planning Commissioner Marv Levin became a prominent casualty of such a dispute this week when the City Council fired him for angering Quartz Hill residents by telling them their rural lifestyle was a thing of the past.

Councilman George Theophanis said Wednesday that he asked the council to fire Levin, a Lancaster attorney and Theophanis appointee, because Levin’s statements at an Oct. 30 Planning Commission meeting offended residents and developers and cast the city in a bad light.

“He made a statement that angered people,” Theophanis said. “The bottom line is that he insulted all the council and the commissioners . . . We don’t try to destroy people’s lifestyles.”

Levin said Wednesday that the firing Monday was an overreaction to his statements, which he called unpopular but realistic.

“They booed me because I was the messenger,” he said, referring to residents of Quartz Hill. Amid the valley’s population and construction boom of past years, the unincorporated area west of Lancaster has been the scene of many recent development proposals, and parts of its former area have already been annexed by the city.

Levin’s statements came at a meeting at which dozens of homeowners protested a proposed shopping center and five housing tracts north of Quartz Hill. The shopping center was approved, and the housing tracts remain under consideration pending further study by the city planning department.

Levin responded to critics of the proposals by saying that the “rural lifestyle is over, whether you like it or not.”

“I wish I could have told them differently,” Levin said Wednesday, “but the fact is that the rural lifestyle is over.”

Levin also said during the meeting that the commission might have to “force” developers to cooperate in coming up with a master plan for the housing tracts.

Levin accused Theophanis of dumping him in order to gain political popularity and to replace Levin with a closer political ally, charges that Theophanis denied.

The council voted 4 to 1 for Levin’s ouster, with the dissenting council member asking that Levin be kept on until a replacement could be named. Theophanis appointed Levin to the five-member commission after being elected in 1988.

Levin said Wednesday that he was expressing regret about what he sees as the loss of a rural lifestyle.

Theophanis said he acted because Levin gave the impression that the city is insensitive and “I’m the one who has to suffer. I’m the one who’s getting the letters and the telephone calls.”

Quartz Hill homeowner Ted Schenstrom hailed the firing of Levin and said other residents share his sentiments.

“He didn’t come across as being sympathetic,” Schenstrom said. “I think that the way he said it, he got what he deserved.”