County Rejects 2nd Golf-Tract Design in Bid to Save Oaks : Santa Clarita: Planners want Newhall Land & Farming Co. to lessen the effect of its project on ecologically sensitive land near Magic Mountain.

For the second time since Los Angeles County strengthened policies to protect ecologically sensitive lands, a county panel Wednesday ordered a Santa Clarita developer to redesign a golf course and housing tract planned for an oak savanna.

The unanimous order by the County Regional Planning Commission sends Newhall Land & Farming Co. back to the drawing board once again to revise its plans for an 18-hole golf course and 1,880 housing units on 800 acres west of the Golden State Freeway, a few miles south of Magic Mountain.

The project, known as Westridge, would be built on portions of 310 acres identified 11 years ago as one of the county’s Significant Ecological Areas--or SEAs.

“It’s very frustrating,” said Gloria Glenn, vice president of planning for Newhall Land, who joked after the hearing that she had taken up smoking to cope with the tension and would not quit unless the project is approved.

The County Board of Supervisors voted in June to beef up the review of projects proposed in the ecological zones but did not ban development in such areas.

Although planning commissioners have taken a tough stance on the Westridge project, they have been less demanding of a developer planning to build a housing and commercial development on a 500-acre ecological area near Calabasas.

Despite objections from Las Virgenes-area residents and environmental groups, the commission gave preliminary approval in July to the project, known as Malibu Terrace. If the commission gives the project final approval, the county will receive $4 million from the developer to extend Thousand Oaks Boulevard, long considered an alternative route to ease congestion on the Ventura Freeway.

Two commissioners--Supervisor Ed Edelman’s appointee Richard Wulliger and Supervisor Gloria Molina’s appointee Rene Santiago--voted against the Malibu Terrace project. They also objected vehemently Wednesday to Newhall Land’s revised plans for the Westridge project, saying the company should stay out of the SEA altogether. An advisory panel of biologists has also rejected the original and first revision of the company’s plans.

“The SEA should not be invaded at all,” Wulliger said.

Newhall Land wants to remove 149 oak trees to make way for nine holes of the golf course and 200 housing units in the SEA, dubbed Valley Oaks Savannah because it contains 1,183 oak trees on rolling grasslands. The company initially planned to remove 339 oaks and build 336 housing units in the ecological area.

“We consider SEAs to be a regional resource,” Santiago said. “I suggest Newhall Land dedicate all the SEA to the county for open space.”

But the three other commissioners stopped short of ordering Newhall Land out of the SEA, although they did tell the company to redesign the project to lessen the effect on the ecologically sensitive land. After hearing testimony against the project from representatives from the city of Santa Clarita, Newhall School District and local environmental groups, the commission ordered the developer to return with new plans Jan. 23.

“We all want to protect SEAs in general, but we can’t be too restrictive,” said Commissioner Pat Russell, Supervisor Mike Antonovich’s appointee. “People do own this property and we do have to allow appropriate development.”

Under the new policy established by the Board of Supervisors, a biologist will be hired to analyze all projects proposed for the 29 SEAs under county control. The policy also will require an earlier survey of an SEA’s biological resources and mandate a review by the Planning Commission of any project in the ecological areas.

Most of the changes, however, were enacted too late to affect about 32 projects pending with the county, including the Westridge and Malibu Terrace projects.