Sylmar Advisory Panel Seeks to Preserve Rural Flavor of Area : Growth: Committee urges new schools, better roads and improved sewer services. The revised community plan will be the first in a series throughout the city.

Sylmar residents got their first glimpse Wednesday night of how their neighbors want to shape future development in Los Angeles’ fastest growing community when the Citizens Planning Advisory Committee presented its first recommendations for a new community plan.

Committee members said they want to see growth tied to increased city services, including new schools and road and sewer improvements. They also would like to see what’s left of the community’s rural atmosphere retained.

“We’re not suggesting any radical changes to Sylmar,” committee Chairwoman Margaret Whittington said. “We’re asking that as much of the horse property as possible be preserved. We want to preserve the flavor of our neighborhoods. There is a strong desire to maintain our rural quality of life.”

Members of the citizens committee, which includes representatives of business, homeowner groups and other interests, were appointed about 18 months ago by Councilman Ernani Bernardi to recommend changes to the area’s community plan. Sylmar’s plan will be the first in a series of community plans throughout the city that will be revised.

Three subcommittees--housing, transportation and industrial-commercial--presented their findings to the full committee at a meeting attended by about 75 people at Olive View Medical Center.

“It’s a step in the right direction,” said resident Jeannie Sikkel, who said she also would like to have a regional shopping center in Sylmar.

The housing subcommittee also recommended that the rural nature of the community’s hillsides be preserved and that money be sought to improve deteriorating houses in Sylmar’s older neighborhoods.

“There are some major problems with some of the older neighborhoods,” Whittington said. “Many have no sidewalks or street lights, or they aren’t hooked up to the sewer. We’re recommending that these kind of things happen.”

The industrial-commercial subcommittee suggested that the San Fernando Road area be turned into a mix of commercial and higher-density residential uses, such as apartments, and that efforts be made to attract new businesses.

Sylmar--once viewed as the city’s quiet, rural outback--led all other areas of Los Angeles in growth during the 1980s with a 30.7% increase, city planners said last year.

With an estimated population of 70,000, Sylmar is divided between residents who remember the community’s many acres of olive groves and horse ranches and the newcomers who have bought residences in the many housing tracts that have replaced them.

But both groups agree in principle on the committee’s initial recommendations, Whittington said. Residents want “the kind of growth that won’t destroy the flavor of the community,” she said.

“My type of rural life is gone completely,” said Sam Jones, a committee member and longtime resident. “But there are some old-timers who have a couple of acres still who don’t want dense development.”

The committee hopes to send its recommendations to the city Planning Department by the end of March.

Officials said it will probably be another 18 months before the recommendations go before the council and a new plan is adopted.