State Senator Shelves Bill to Slow Building in Mountains : Development: Facing strong opposition, Herschel Rosenthal withdraws measure to block the easing of zoning restrictions, known as ‘upzoning.’

A San Fernando Valley lawmaker on Monday unexpectedly dropped a bill designed to slow down development in parts of the Santa Monica Mountains.

The measure would have temporarily blocked the practice of upzoning--easing zoning restrictions to allow more houses on a tract of land--pending completion of a study on how to preserve wildlife habitat in Los Angeles County.

The measure, by state Sen. Herschel Rosenthal (D-Los Angeles), cleared the Senate in April by a vote of 24 to 9 and had been scheduled to be heard Monday by the Assembly Natural Resources Committee.

But before the hearing, Rosenthal said he did not have the votes to win approval from the panel. In a hallway interview, he conceded that the legislation “looks like it’s dead” for this year, though he held out a slim chance that he could revive the proposal before the legislative session ends in August.

Joseph T. Edmiston, executive director of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and a prime backer of the bill, said the legislation faced strong opposition from the building industry. He said it seemed better to withdraw the measure “rather than have the bill resoundingly defeated.” He added that he expects the proposal to be reintroduced next year.

The measure was opposed by the California Building Industry Assn., the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn., the California Chamber of Commerce and the city of Calabasas. Critics argued that it would be an unwarranted interference with local zoning and voiced fears that the habitat study would not be finished by 1994.

Rosenthal’s bill “was completely unprecedented in state law,” said Richard Lyon, a lobbyist with the California Building Industry Assn.

The proposal, supported by homeowner and environmental groups such as the Planning and Conservation League, is part of a continuing battle over upzoning in the Santa Monica Mountains.

Conservationists and parks officials have long criticized Los Angeles County for routinely approving developer requests to upzone mountain land. The practice, critics say, has degraded existing preserves within the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area and has raised the cost to park agencies of buying additional threatened lands.

Rosenthal’s bill would have required the conservancy, a state agency that buys land to conserve as open space, to draw up a comprehensive plan to preserve key migratory routes connecting pockets of wildlife habitat in the mountains.

The bill required that the study be finished by Jan. 1, 1994. But critics pointed out that no money was provided, fueling their concern that the study would not be finished on time and that the moratorium would drag on.

A state Senate analysis notes that the mountains encompass a diverse ecosystem that supports bobcat, badger, mule deer, gray fox, long-tailed weasel, mountain lion and coyote. It also quotes from a 1990 Nature Conservancy study that suggests wildlife diversity in the mountains is declining and that many species will become extinct during the next 200 years due to destruction of their habitat.

The mountains conservancy itself has been criticized for supporting upzoning of specific projects in return for commitments by developers to donate parkland or wildlife habitat.

Recently, for example, the conservancy supported a project approved by the city of Calabasas that will involve construction of 250 homes--three times the number allowed by current zoning. In exchange, the developer, Micor Ventures Inc., offered to donate more than 600 acres of its property to keep intact a corridor that permits animal movement in the mountains.

The Micor donation would connect with another 640 acres to the north that was contributed by the Baldwin Co. In that case, the conservancy supported Baldwin’s request to build 550 homes on land zoned for 138 homes.

While Rosenthal’s bill sought a moratorium on upzoning in Los Angeles County, it deliberately omitted Ventura County because the conservancy supports a huge upzoning there at the Ahmanson Ranch, Edmiston said.

That development would include 3,100 residences, two golf courses, a hotel and 500,000 square feet of commercial space. In return for building permits, developers would donate and sell more than 10,000 acres of mountain land for a below-market $29.5 million, including entertainer Bob Hope’s holdings in the Santa Monica and Santa Susana mountains and the Simi Hills.

Conservancy officials said their support both for Rosenthal’s bill and for specific higher density requests is not inconsistent. Since upzoning requests are routinely granted by the county, they said, and since the conservancy’s power to influence the county is limited, insisting on current zoning limits has not been a realistic stance in bargaining with developers.

They said they reluctantly supported upzoning bids that also preserved valuable habitat.

Rosenthal aide Colleen Beamish said opposition to the moratorium was not the only issue that prompted her boss to drop the bill. Some committee members, she said, were unhappy with another provision that would have prevented changes in local governments’ General Plans. Dennis Washburn, a member of the Calabasas City Council, said officials of the fledgling city feared the bill would stop work on their General Plan.

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