Sierra Madre Stops Hillside Construction : Development: A 45-day moratorium is enacted when the city realizes that its current ordinance may be flawed.

A 45-day emergency moratorium on hillside development was approved Tuesday by the City Council in yet another twist in the city’s efforts to protect the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains.

The moratorium was imposed after the council realized that its current strict hillside ordinance could be faulty and might be challenged in court.

On Monday, hillside property owner Michael Heflin filed suit in Pasadena Superior Court against the ordinance. The suit contends that the negative environmental declaration supporting the current ordinance is inadequate and that a thorough environmental impact report should have been done.

But Heflin’s attorney, Carl West, said that Heflin, who owns 120 acres, hopes he won’t have to pursue the legal battle. Heflin and four other property owners have hired consultant Dale Beland to work with a citizens committee devising a better ordinance, West said.

Heflin sued to preserve his legal right to challenge the current ordinance, West said. Under state law, challenges must be filed within 120 days of adoption of ordinances; the city’s hillside ordinance was adopted Jan. 9.

The suit and new moratorium add another layer of complexity to the hillside protection issue, which began in 1988 when the council passed its first hillside moratorium. The city’s Planning Commission then devised a strict hillside ordinance that limits development according to five zones imposed vertically up the hillsides, with varying densities of one house per 40 acres to one house per 15,000 square feet.

That ordinance angered hillside property owners, and the council proposed a less-strict ordinance with three horizontal zones. During discussions about the two ordinances, the council discovered that the 1988 moratorium had expired. It hastily passed the strict ordinance that is now being challenged.

Because an ordinance was adopted after the first moratorium expired, a second moratorium was legal, City Manager James McRea said.

The new moratorium will protect the hillsides in the face of that challenge. It will also allow time for the citizen committee to finish its work in a few weeks, committee member Gurden Miller said. The group is examining the topography of the hillsides to devise zoning densities based on ground stability, hillside steepness and proximity to ridge lines, he said.