Report Supports Views of Developer : Porter Ranch: An environment study says the proposed project would have little effect on traffic congestion.

A long-awaited environmental study of the massive Porter Ranch development proposal Wednesday largely supported several of the developer’s key contentions on issues such as air quality and traffic congestion.

The report, released Wednesday by the Los Angeles Planning Department, said the effect of the project on traffic congestion in the northwest San Fernando Valley would be almost insignificant, because of the many public works improvements, such as freeway ramp widenings and new streets, that would be paid for by the Porter Ranch Development Co.

The report also said that air pollution attributable to the project--mostly from vehicle traffic it would generate--would fall within the South Coast Air Quality Management District’s limits for bringing the air of the Los Angeles basin into conformity with federal clean air standards by the year 2007.

A spokesman for the development company said the report affirmed the public benefits of the project.

“We are the source of funding for virtually every street improvement in that entire quadrant of the Valley,” spokesman Paul Clarke said, referring to improvements the company would make if it is allowed to proceed with construction.

City planners supervised preparation of the 208-page supplemental report, using data provided by Engineering Technology Inc. of Sherman Oaks, a consulting firm the development company selected and paid.

The Porter Ranch proposal calls for 2,195 single-family houses, 200 multifamily dwellings and 6 million square feet of commercial space, including 10-story buildings and a shopping mall the size of the Northridge Fashion Center. The project would be built over a 20-year period in the hills north of the Simi Valley Freeway in Chatsworth.

Paul Chipello, a spokesman for a residents’ group called PRIDE, which opposes the project, criticized the report for dismissing a primary criticism leveled by his group. PRIDE maintains the city should adhere to existing land-use regulations calling for no more than 1,020,000 square feet of commercial space on the 1,300-acre site.

The report dealt with his criticism by saying the existing regulations are “being revised.”

“It’s a disregard for public opinion,” Chipello said. “It makes a meaningless charade out of the whole process.”

The document released Wednesday was prepared to address changes in the proposal in the past year. The city’s earlier environmental report was labeled as inadequate by the Southern California Assn. of Governments and the air quality district. The two agencies demanded more study of how the project would purportedly allow workers to live closer to their jobs, which could reduce traffic-caused smog.

The report responded by saying the project would bring about a better regional balance of jobs and houses, coming to within 36 dwelling units of SCAG’s ideal “performance criteria.”

SCAG and the air district are expected to respond formally to the report in the next several weeks.

Although the report said emissions from the project would not hamper the air district’s plan to meet federal guidelines, it said they would have “a significantly adverse impact on local and regional air quality.”

Clarke said the report merely recognized the reality that development of the land will worsen air quality but not to an intolerable level.

He said the development company was surprised to learn, however, that its proposal would allow drive-through businesses, a source of air pollution from idling vehicles.

“We would not be averse to eliminating drive-through businesses altogether” from the plan, Clarke said. The development company is a partnership run by Beverly Hills builder Nathan Shapell.