2 Supervisors Join Forces to Protect Ecological Areas : Environment: L.A. County’s Ed Edelman and Ventura County’s Maria VanderKolk urge stricter controls over development on sensitive lands.

Two county supervisors, one from Ventura and the other Los Angeles, Wednesday called for stricter development controls over important nature zones, including establishment in Ventura County of Los Angeles-style Significant Ecological Areas.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Ed Edelman and Ventura County Supervisor Maria VanderKolk held a joint news conference in the freshly rain-verdant hills of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, just east of the county line. Edelman urged citizens to support his recent proposal for stricter regulations of the 61 officially designated ecological areas in Los Angeles County, and VanderKolk said similar zones should be designated in Ventura County.

They said the bi-county conference was a symbol of their determination to transcend county lines and work together on issues of regional significance to the Conejo Valley, particularly on environmental issues.

“SEAs know no boundaries,” VanderKolk said. “They extend from one county to the next.”

For her part, VanderKolk said that she wants Ventura County administrators to investigate the possibility of establishing ecological areas in Ventura County to protect ecologically important land from growth pressures. Ventura County currently does not designate such areas.

“I see the writing on the wall,” she said, noting that she has seen many applications for developments in ecologically valuable land. “We have a number of areas that should have a higher level of protection than they do.”

VanderKolk also said she supported Edelman’s proposal to increase protection of ecological areas in Los Angeles County, which have been nibbled away by developments.

Two weeks ago, Edelman recommended that prospective developers be required to provide additional environmental and biological studies of ecological areas and that county officials, instead of developers, choose the biologists who review applications.

Edelman’s rules also would grant additional powers to the Technical Advisory Committee that performs the initial reviews of projects proposed in a Significant Ecological Area and would require county planners to personally inspect the sites.

Such policies, he said, would provide more information about the environmental impact of projects proposed for the ecological areas and would aid supervisors in deciding whether to modify or reject the proposals.

Edelman urged citizens to support his proposals at a hearing by the Los Angeles board on April 18.

“You can be assured that the development communities will have their representatives there,” he said. “There will be people that will want to water it down.”

The joint press conference was held at the entrance to the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area on land where Potomac Investment Associates wants to build an access road to a proposed housing development and golf course on Jordan Ranch land. The developers have proposed transferring 864 acres of Jordan Ranch land to federal and state parks agencies in return for 59 acres of Los Angeles County’s Palo Comado Significant Ecological Area.