Annexation Plan May Collide With Builders, County

Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson’s proposal to annex to the city huge sections of the rugged Santa Susana Mountains north of the San Fernando Valley may set the lawmaker on a collision course with several large developers and with county officials now studying the area for a landfill.

Bernson downplays the possibility of conflicts emerging from his plan to graft 13,000 acres of territory to the northern boundary of his 12th District. “There’s no specific projects we’re trying to stop,” he said.

But others worry about Bernson’s motives in seeking to annex 13,000 acres--20 square miles--an area roughly equal in combined size to Mission Hills, Northridge and Chatsworth.

Joe Edmiston, chief of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, said he hopes that Bernson’s annexation plan is to block any move by the county to use Blind Canyon, two miles north of Chatsworth, as a landfill. Annexing Blind Canyon, most of which is owned by comedian Bob Hope, could “give the city more leverage over the county in the landfill wars,” Edmiston said.

Indeed, Bernson has sought to close the privately owned Sunshine Canyon Landfill above Granada Hills, a move that has put him sharply at odds with county solid waste planners.

“Look what Bernson’s done to Porter Ranch,” said Hal Hughes, who owns 40 acres in the area proposed for annexation. He was referring to the hotly debated proposal for a $2-billion, 1,300-acre commercial and residential project.

Hughes, who is in the real estate business, said he believes that Bernson would permit the Santa Susana Mountains to be urbanized.

The area Bernson wants to annex is raw land, held by a few major property owners. They include Hope, who holds nearly 900 acres; Dale Poe Development Corp., a Santa Clarita Valley developer who owns 1,300 acres along the southeast flanks of the Santa Susana Mountains; a family that owns the so-called Joughin Ranch of about 1,700 acres; Pacific Lighting Corp. and Chevron Oil, which each own hundreds of acres.

Bernson has been low-key about his proposal. No media fanfare accompanied it. Bernson, who heads the City Council’s powerful Planning Committee, has refused to portray annexation as a move that will put him at immediate loggerheads with powerful development interests.

Bernson said he hopes that annexation will enable the city to protect the unique natural features of the Santa Susana Mountains from development.

But the development pressures in the Santa Susana Mountains may be more urgent and tangible than Bernson acknowledges.

Blind Canyon is an example. The Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County have recently tried to option land in Blind Canyon so that the districts might possibly develop the area as a landfill. A draft environmental impact report, being prepared by the districts, also studies Blind Canyon as a possible dump site.

Don Nellor, a mid-level sanitation districts planner, said the draft environmental report will probably be released in a month.

By trying to option land in Blind Canyon, the sanitation districts “want to tie the area up until we finish our environmental work--we don’t want any incompatible development to occur there in the interim,” Nellor said.

Browns Canyon, also in the proposed annexation area, had been viewed as another possible landfill by county sanitation officials but was dropped recently as a dump site. “Browns Canyon is gorgeous. A lot of this area ought to be protected. It would be sacrilegious to put a landfill in there,” he said.

Bernson’s annexation plan does not appear to perturb the sanitation districts management. “Mr. Bernson doesn’t have jurisdiction over Blind Canyon yet, so there’s not much he can do about our plans at this time,” Nellor said.

In fact, it would take several years to annex the tract, Bernson said recently. Bernson is familiar with the process--he sits on the Los Angeles County Local Agency Formation Commission, which rules on annexation matters.

Meanwhile, development pressures are also increasing. “Our main competitors” for buying options in the Blind Canyon area are developers, said William Roggenkamp, a sanitation districts real property agent.

Griffin Homes, a major Southland developer, has purchased 160 acres in a once-remote part of Browns Canyon. The Indian Wells Estates project continues to creep toward Blind Canyon. A year ago, Indian Wells Estates purchased 450 acres north of its existing development in the unincorporated area north of the Simi Valley Freeway.

Edmiston, who heads an agency committed to buying land for parks in the Santa Susana Mountains, said that he is sanguine about the city trying to assert jurisdiction over the area.

“I don’t like to throw brickbats,” he said. “But the city has done a heck of a lot more about requiring open space of developers and making sure projects are environmentally sensitive than the county.”