County Rebukes Developer’s Bid to Build in Calabasas : Density: Planning commissioners rejected a bid to build 78 units in an area that is zoned for only six.

Los Angeles County planning commissioners rebuked a developer’s bid Wednesday to build 78 dwelling units on a hill in Calabasas where the county’s land-use plan allows only six units.

The Regional Planning Commission delayed its vote until commissioners visit the site, but three of the panel’s five members sharply criticized the proposal by developer Jack Bravo.

“This is a case of overkill, overbill,” said Commissioner Clinton Ternstrom. “This entire development should be reduced dramatically.”

Bravo wants to build 39 duplexes on the hill at Ruthwood Drive near Alizia Canyon Drive. Representatives of the Malibu Canyon Homeowners Assn. and the Malibu Township Council spoke against the proposal, saying the 20-acre parcel wasn’t suited to such intensive development.

“This up-zoning is just totally unwarranted,” said Sara Wan of the Malibu Township Council.

Bravo maintained that he should be allowed the higher density because another developer was allowed to build 34 units on an adjacent seven-acre tract.

But Ternstrom and fellow commissioners Lee Strong and Betty Fisher said they disagreed.

“Where were you when the plan was adopted?” Strong said, referring to the fact that the county plan calls for six units on the site, not 78. “If we just took plan amendments like that . . . and said, ‘That’s OK,’ then the plan means nothing.”

Fisher criticized what she called Bravo’s “domino rationalization” that because urbanization was previously allowed in the valley next to the site, it should be allowed on the hill.

“This is a hillside management area,” said Ternstrom, an appointee of Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who represents the area. Bravo’s proposal to grade much of the hill would amount to “a destruction of a natural environment,” Ternstrom said.

Bravo said after the hearing that the 39 duplexes can be built on the hill “very easily” and that “Mr. Ternstrom was mistaken on a few little things as far as the zoning goes.”

Commissioner Sadie Clark sympathized with Bravo’s claim that he should be entitled to more units than are allowed in the county plan. At her request, the commission agreed to view the site on Jan. 29 before holding another hearing Feb. 14.

The commission is hearing the case at a time when the Las Virgenes school and water districts, which serve the Calabasas area, are pressing county officials to adhere to their land-use plans. Officials of the two districts have said that they rely on the plans to project the demand for future schools and water and sewer facilities.