Developer Scraps Hidden Hills Project

The builder behind a controversial development proposal that would have brought lower-cost housing to wealthy Hidden Hills said Monday that the project is dead.

Danny Howard of H.H. Lasher Road Ltd. said his option to buy the 25-acre property has expired because the Hidden Hills City Council has not made a final decision on the entire project.

Howard said his contract with landowners Jon Galiher and William Maingot required him to obtain final council approval by early May.

The proposal called for nine luxury homes to be built on 21 acres that were to have been incorporated into the exclusive gated community and connected to its private road network. Howard had wanted to build commercial properties, including a five-story office building and a 48-unit apartment building for low- and moderate-income senior citizens, on the four acres that would have remained outside the city’s gates.

“It means it’s dead,” Howard said of the project.

Howard had asked the City Council to expedite a decision on the project last week. The council, however, approved only the single-family residential portion of the project. Council members said they were not ready to take further action because they had too many unanswered questions about the rest of the project’s environmental effects.

Howard said he would continue to seek financial damages in a lawsuit he filed against the city late last year.