Height Limit Aims to Slow Growth : Sunland-Tujunga: A councilman says the area is one of the last in the city where an average family can have a modest home and a horse.

A new interim ordinance placing strict controls on new apartments and condominiums is the first step in a plan to head off further urban intrusion into Sunland-Tujunga, one of the last semi-rural areas in Los Angeles, City Councilman Joel Wachs said Tuesday.

Wachs, who represents the area, said a community plan adopted in 1980 has allowed large, dense apartment buildings to proliferate along Sunland and Foothill boulevards, and Commerce Avenue. Many of the buildings cast shadows over adjacent single-family houses, he said.

“We have to put a stop to that,” Wachs said. “Sunland-Tujunga’s unique. This is one of the last remaining areas in the city where an average family can have a modest home and a horse.”

The ordinance, adopted by the City Council last Friday, was introduced by Wachs in response to complaints from residents about blocked views and parking and traffic problems resulting from apartment and condominium construction.

The measure limits the height of future apartment buildings to two stories or 30 feet, restricts density to one unit per 1,850 square feet of land and requires at least 50% of the open space in a parcel under development to be landscaped. The interim ordinance will remain in place until permanent controls are enacted.

The 1980 community plan for Sunland-Tujunga allowed apartment buildings to be as tall as six stories and to have a maximum of 54 units per half-acre. The interim ordinance would allow a maximum of 14 units on a half-acre parcel.

“This is part of an overall approach to preserving the community’s character,” Wachs said.

“What we have done . . . is to take a major step towards halting the damage caused by the reckless developments,” he said.

Wachs said he will appoint a citizens committee to write a specific plan for the community that will include provisions to revitalize commercial areas and protect hillside areas. The committee will recommend changes to the community plan on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood basis, Wachs said.

Sylvia Gross, land use chairwoman for the Sunland-Tujunga Assn. of Residents, said residents hope to develop a plan that will attract new types of commercial development instead of more auto-repair shops and fast-food restaurants.

“I can’t be more delighted,” she said of Wachs’ plan. “We shouldn’t have those apartments on Foothill. We need new quality retail business.”

The new plan is expected to take two years to complete.

Public hearings on an interim ordinance to control hillside development will begin April 19.

“We must save our mountainsides so that they won’t be carved up like Glendale’s,” Gross said. “You look at the hillsides there and you see nothing but bad. We can’t let that happen here. This is the last open land in the whole city.”