Sierra Madre Puts 45-Day Ban on Hillside Building

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

The moratorium was imposed Tuesday after the council realized that its current strict hillside ordinance faced a court challenge.

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 ordinance is inadequate and that a thorough environmental impact report should have been done.

Heflin’s attorney, Carl West, said that Heflin, who owns 120 acres, hopes he will not have to pursue the legal battle. Heflin and four other property owners have hired consultant Dale Beland to work with a citizens committee to devise 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 after the adoption of ordinances. The city’s hillside ordinance was adopted Jan. 9.

The lawsuit and moratorium add another layer of complexity to the hillside protection issue, which arose in 1988 when the council passed its first hillside moratorium. The city’s Planning Commission then devised a strict hillside ordinance that limited development to five zones of 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 zones. During discussions about the ordinance, the council discovered that the 1988 moratorium had expired. It hastily passed the strict ordinance that is now being challenged.

The new moratorium will allow time for the citizens committee to finish its work, expected to take a few more 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.