Planners OK Luxury 550-House Project in Ecological Zone

The Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission on Wednesday approved construction of a luxury housing and commercial development in the Santa Monica Mountains, which would cut deeply into an officially designated ecologically sensitive area and require uprooting of more than 1,800 oak trees.

The project--which would include 550 houses, a church, a school and a shopping center east of Las Virgenes Road in Calabasas--still must win final approval from the Board of Supervisors.

When the project was first discussed more than two years ago, it drew widespread criticism from environmentalists and neighboring homeowners. However, developer Jim Baldwin obtained the support of many of his former adversaries by negotiating a compromise that reduced the size of the project and provided public facilities.

The four planning commissioners who supported the development all praised representatives of the Baldwin Co. for reaching agreement with community and environmental groups and with county planners.

“It is, in a sense, the kind of project that we’ve been looking for,” Commissioner Lee Strong said. “Where . . . people get together and come to some sort of understanding.”

Only one commissioner, Richard Wulliger, dissented, saying the developer had not established that he should be granted an exception allowing construction of 550 houses, more than four times the number that would have been permitted under the current zoning. Wulliger, whose dissatisfaction with the project led the commissioners to delay their decision a month and to visit the site, also said that allowing construction of a 160,000-square-foot commercial zone “opens it up to all sorts of ghastly possibilities.”

In its final version, the project was significantly scaled back from the original proposal for more than 1,500 houses, a hotel and a tennis club. Under the compromise, the builder will reserve 640 acres north of the project for parkland. About 300 of the oaks removed from the construction site will be replanted on that land and the developer has pledged to spend $1.5 million restoring the land through projects such as replanting hillsides denuded by years of sheep grazing.

Eight acres of the Baldwin land also have been promised to the Las Virgenes Unified School District for possible construction of an elementary school.

The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy wanted some of the site for parkland because it is within what the county has designated as one of 61 Significant Ecological Areas. Less than half of the 960-acre SEA is actually in the promised park site, however, and construction would be allowed on the remainder.

Carolyn Barr, an analyst for the conservancy, said the state parks agency asked for that acreage because it contains the most important oak groves.

The land would be connected with wildlife habitats to the north through a culvert Baldwin has agreed to build under the Ventura Freeway. “We would hope to attract fox, bobcat and maybe, in our greatest dreams, mountain lions,” Barr said.

But Barr conceded that the conservancy’s plans for the culvert, and for inclusion of the land in a regional wildlife corridor, could be foiled if the county proceeds with plans for an east-west highway south of the Ventura Freeway through Calabasas. The proposed road, alongside the freeway, would take up 206 acres and effectively isolate the remaining 434 acres of the promised park. That point was raised by the lone dissenter at Wednesday’s hearing, Calabasas resident Hal Helsley.

The houses, which would be built on the southern part of the site near the end of Parkway Calabasas, probably would sell for between $750,000 and $1.5 million, said Baldwin spokesman Bob Burns. The average lot size would be 35,000 square feet.

Burns said Baldwin is counting on public bond financing through a Mello-Roos assessment district, under which public improvements such as the parkland and school site would be paid off by a tax on the sales price of new houses in the district.

Creation of that district also must be approved by supervisors. However, Burns and county officials said that under agreements signed by the various parties, the development can only be built if the improvements are made, whether or not the public financing is obtained.

“We would have to find the money, somewhere,” Burns said.

Other commitments made by Baldwin include $7.5 million for bridge and road improvements in the area, $4 million to improve the Parkway Calabasas freeway interchange, and $175,000 to help pay for an environmental study of the impacts of a highway parallel to the freeway.