Leona Valley Seeks Building Limits : Planning: County commissioners appear to favor approval of an attempt to preserve the area’s rural character.

In a last-ditch effort to prevent the urbanization of their bowl-shaped valley, residents of a rural area outside Palmdale on Thursday asked the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission to approve a community standards district.

The Leona Valley district’s primary, and most controversial, provision would limit most future construction to lots of 2 1/2 acres or more “to imitate what is already there,” according to Leona Valley Town Council member Mary Ann Floyd. It would also rule out block-wall fences and discourage sidewalks, curbs, gutters and street lighting wherever possible.

Although planning commissioners debated the community standards proposal at length and eventually voted 3 to 2 to postpone a decision until April 2, they indicated that they were leaning toward approval.

“Leona Valley has a very unique character,” Commissioner Rene Santiago said. “It’s a credit to the residents there that they got together to preserve that character.”

If approved, the community standards district would create special zoning regulations for the area, which the county would have to follow in future development decisions.

The proposal has angered some longtime residents of the area, but its major foe is Ritter Ranch, a proposed 11,500-acre master-planned development that dips into Leona Valley. About 3,600 acres--and 1,200 houses--of Ritter Ranch would be within the proposed district.

On Thursday, Ritter Ranch spokesman Peter Wenner told commissioners that the district would constitute poor planning because it could promote development spread over the rolling hills, instead of allowing clustered development on the valley floor.

Wenner also argued that such spread-out development would preclude a sewer and water delivery system, thus adding to septic tank pollution and overuse of ground water in the area.

“We are, from a planning standpoint, the best way to go,” he said.

Floyd responded that Ritter Ranch’s own environmental study listed 14 unremediable environmental impacts of the project, ranging from air pollution to increased traffic.

Ritter Ranch hopes to be annexed by the city of Palmdale, which has been largely supportive of its development plans, although the Leona Valley Town Council has opposed that move as well.

Last year, the countywide board that regulates annexation asked Ritter Ranch to try to work out its differences with the town council before it continues its quest for annexation.

Similarly, on Thursday, planning commissioners asked the two sides to try to arrive at compromises before the April 2 meeting.

Floyd expressed skepticism that Ritter Ranch would follow through on that request because, she said, the developers have refused to discuss lowering the density of their project in the past.

However, Wenner said the company “would be happy to meet with them to show them how” the community standards district “would not be in their best interests.”