Westlake Village OKs Housing Project for Wildlife Habitat

The Westlake Village City Council has cleared the way for a developer to build 51 houses in an area described as important wildlife habitat, but complained that a state parks agency should have bought the land to preserve it.

After nearly four hours of testimony and discussion Wednesday night and early Thursday, the council voted 5 to 0 to approve plans by M.J. Brock for a development on an oak-studded meadow upstream from Lake Eleanor, which environmentalists call an important water source for animals in the Santa Monica Mountains.

Council members expressed regret over allowing development on the land, but said they had no choice because of the absence of an offer from the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy to buy the land.

The land had been described by biologist Rudi Mattoni of the Center for the Conservation of Biodiversity, a Beverly Hills environmental group, as a “really unique property . . . a truly rich area of bio-diversity.”

Larry Lynch, a representative of M.J. Brock, said the developer is willing to sell the land, but no agency has stepped forward to negotiate for it.

“I am very disappointed in some of the agencies,” Councilman James Emmons said. “Their mission is to acquire open space land and it would have been good if they had in fact acquired this site.”

Councilwoman Berniece Bennett questioned whether officials of the conservancy--a state agency charged with the preservation of the Santa Monica Mountains--truly considered the site ecologically significant. “If it was that sensitive, I wish they had come forward to buy it,” she said. “That’s why they have the funds.”

But conservancy officials later said the agency--now involved in complicated negotiations to acquire a controversial, expensive canyon in Studio City--doesn’t have the money.

“The conservancy can’t buy everything,” spokesman Paul Edelman said. “People seem to have this illusion that the conservancy has this endless source of money, but that’s not the reality.”

At the hearing Wednesday night, Edelman appealed to the council to reject the construction proposal on grounds that the potential benefits of the new houses are not adequate compensation for the environmental damage they would cause.

The proposed construction site is home to a large population of tiny yellow flowers, known as Pentachaeta lyonii, which are on the federal government’s list of endangered species. Many of the flowers, which are indigenous to the Santa Monica Mountains, will be destroyed by the housing, project opponents said.

The project also calls for uprooting 11 oak trees, although seven would be transplanted.

Environmentalists also complained that runoff from the development will pollute the lake, and that the residences will block a canyon wildlife trail, making it difficult for animals from the mountains to reach the water.

Dave Stoddard, who has lived in Westlake Village 16 years, contested the conclusion of an environmental impact report that significant environmental damage on the site is “unavoidable.”

“I always thought that only death and taxes were unavoidable. I guess now we have to add the destruction of our environment,” he said. “But the truth is, it is avoidable. Simply by not approving this project, you can avoid it.”

But Mayor Ken Rufener said the landowner’s property rights take precedence over the environmental concerns because the land is zoned for residential development.

“I do not believe that an acre or two of land on which a small flower grows is enough to justify depriving a property owner the right to build on his land,” he said.