Bernson Challenger Proposes Ban on Building

Los Angeles City Council candidate Walter Prince is calling for a temporary ban on all construction, except for single-family houses, in the Chatsworth-Porter Ranch area.

Prince, a Northridge businessman running against incumbent Hal Bernson, said the building moratorium should remain in effect until the city’s streets and public facilities are prepared for the additional growth.

“If the infrastructure ever catches up with what we’ve got now, then there might be room for planned growth,” Prince said Monday. “We’re overbuilt now, so why build more?”

Prince said the moratorium should apply to the area of the Chatsworth-Porter Ranch District Plan. Among other things, the ban would stop the commercial portion of the massive Porter Ranch project, which eventually is to include 6 million square feet of commercial space and 3,395 residential units.

The plan and a report on its environmental effects will be the subject of a public hearing at 5:30 tonight at Lawrence Junior High School, 10100 Variel Ave.

Prince is one of seven people challenging Bernson in the April 9 election for the 12th District seat. Development is a central issue.

Bernson, who chairs the council’s Planning Committee, said Prince’s proposal is unnecessary. “We haven’t had runaway development in this area,” he said. “We’ve had a very tight rein on what’s going on.”

The major non-residential projects built in recent years have been on industrially zoned property between Plummer Street and Nordhoff Avenue in Southern Pacific’s industrial park, Bernson said. “That’s the kind of growth we want,” he said. “It creates good jobs for the community, and it’s clean, high-tech industry without smokestacks.”

Bernson also said the proposed ban is wrong if the real target is Porter Ranch. Developer Nathan Shapell and his partners must make $80 million in improvements, including synchronizing traffic signals at dozens of intersections, to ease the effects of their project, Bernson said.

“Mr. Prince doesn’t understand that the controls are already in place,” Bernson said.

A traffic study conducted for the city concluded that those improvements will make traffic conditions better than they are even after Porter Ranch is complete, Bernson said. That finding is disputed by foes of the Porter Ranch project.

The draft environmental report said growth in the Chatsworth-Porter Ranch area would create heavy traffic congestion costing millions of dollars to alleviate.

Bernson has criticized the report as “grossly inadequate” and recommended that city planning authorities order a revision.