Officials Fear Luxury Housing Project Will Pollute Lake : Westlake Village: One planner calls the eight-acre Lake Eleanor the ‘jewel’ of the area’s open-space system.

A proposal to construct 52 luxury houses on 78 acres in Westlake Village has raised the ire of park agencies that want to acquire the site and of Thousand Oaks officials who say the project will pollute a lake on their side of the county line.

Lake Eleanor, nestled in Decker Canyon near Westlake Boulevard, west of the county line, is an eight-acre crescent of water that planners say is the heart of a thriving wildlife community, including many species of birds, insects and plants.

They say the lake is also an important watering hole for larger animals such as deer and coyotes that come down from the Santa Monica Mountains. Although the lake is fenced, planners hope that it will soon be accessible to the public via a trail connecting it to the Santa Monica Mountains backbone trail.

“This is the jewel of our open-space system,” said Doug Nickels, a planner for the Conejo Open Space Conservation Agency. “You always see waterfowl, ducks, egrets and a lot of animals come down from the mountains to drink here.”

But Nickels, environmentalists and other parks agencies say the value of the lake--to animals and the public--is jeopardized by a plan by M.J. Brock to build suburban-style tract housing just upstream from the reservoir, in Los Angeles County.

Federal, state and local agencies have joined to oppose the proposal on the ground that it would obliterate a seasonal drainage dubbed Decker Creek that feeds the lake. Runoff from the tract, which would include lawn fertilizers and other chemicals, would pollute the lake, they fear.

They said the project, which is to be known as Lake Eleanor Hills, would also destroy a valuable wildlife habitat that is home to several rare and endangered species, including Pentachaeta lyonii-- an indigenous flower found only in the Santa Monica Mountains.

Brock officials said they would be willing to sell the flat, grassy meadow where they plan to build, but none of the agencies that oppose the project have made any serious attempts to buy it. And unless Brock can sell the property, said spokesman Larry Lynch, the developer is determined to go ahead with the project.

The National Park Service wants to buy the property and establish a visitor center and trail head there, said Kent Schwartzkopf of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy. But he said the Park Service does not have the cash to purchase it this year.

Left without the resources to acquire the land, and without the clear authority to block the project, the parks agencies are pressuring the developer and the Westlake Village City Council to reduce the size of the tract.

Based on an environmental impact report completed in March, the Westlake Village Planning Department staff has already recommended that the council approve the 52-unit project.

But planners from the Conejo Open Space Conservation Agency--which owns Lake Eleanor and more than 600 acres nearby--have asked Brock to cut back the project to 31 residences, which they said would save many of the endangered plants and several oak trees.

In 1988, the Westlake Village Planning Department approved a plan by the land’s previous owner, Prudential Insurance Co., that called for 64 single-family houses, 196 multiple-family units and commercial office space on the property that runs along the north side of Decker Road.

That project was rejected by the City Council because of concerns about traffic and noise. Lynch said that Brock, which has owned the property since 1988, considered those problems when designing the tract plan now under consideration.

“We thought we would, by and large, end up with a pretty good reception,” Lynch said of the current proposal. “We were trying to have a non-controversial project by going down so far in density.”

However, planners from the Conejo group, the conservancy and the state Department of Fish and Game all say that the project is still too big, and have urged Westlake Village planners to allow only 31 residences to be built there.

“They would have a viable project that would be superior to what they have currently proposed. It would create a situation where the environment wins and the developer wins,” said Peter Ireland of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, who recently met with Brock officials to try to persuade them to consider the plan.

Lynch said, however, that the reduced project would be economically unfeasible for the developer.