Factions Unite Against Growth Limits : Malibu Lake: The county proposal, aimed at discouraging building, makes allies of residents and absentee landowners.

For once, most people in Malibu Lake agree on something: The new Los Angeles County plan for their area stinks.

Residents and absentee landowners in the rural community in the Santa Monica Mountains near the Ventura County line gathered Wednesday night to criticize a county proposal to discourage new development and increase fire safety without changing the area’s scenic character.

It was one of several meetings with county officials in the past two years, but this one was different because residents and absentee owners were not shouting at each other. Instead all their anger was directed at county officials.

“One nice thing you have done is actually put the homeowners and the vacant-land owners together with this poppycock,” homeowner Bill Hamilton told five county planning and fire officials as they fidgeted at a table facing 50 boisterous property owners in an elementary school in Agoura Hills.

“I think we should take the county to court together and spank you.”

Both groups dislike the county’s plan because it would discourage property owners from building homes on undeveloped lots and make it harder for current residents to expand their homes, many of which were built as tiny vacation cottages on small lots.

The plan would limit new houses to 800 square feet on a 7,500-square-foot lot. Additions to existing houses could not bring the total size to more than 800 square feet.

A property owner who wanted to build a bigger home or expand an existing house would have to buy vacant land in Malibu Lake--regardless of whether it was contiguous to the construction site--and then retire the building rights on that tract.

For every 100 square feet of floor space added to a dwelling, the owner would have to purchase 1,000 square feet of land that would then remain vacant.

The new rules are part of a draft plan for the Malibu Lake Community Standards District. The plan aims to limit fire risk in the canyon where 186 homes line winding, 20-foot-wide roads that are difficult for firetrucks to negotiate. If all 460 vacant lots were developed, congestion in the area would grow dramatically. But there is no agreement on guiding growth.

“We can’t possibly allow every vacant lot owner to build a house. There are already too many houses on roads that are too narrow,” said Don Wallace, an aide to Supervisor Ed Edelman, who represents Malibu Lake. “If we want to make this area up to current code, then we have to bulldoze all the homes, build a 60-foot-wide road with 40-foot-wide feeders and then re-subdivide it. . . . I don’t think anyone wants to do that.”

The former resort was subdivided into small lots in the 1920s. Residents have fought new development, road widening and sewers. Owners of vacant lots want freedom to develop their property. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors imposed a building moratorium last year to win time to draw up a plan for development and fire protection.

At Wednesday’s meeting, planners appeared to grow frustrated with the seemingly intractable demands of competing groups as speaker after speaker attacked the plan’s limits on house sizes and a proposal to require sprinkler systems in all homes.

“We’ve tried every way possible to accommodate the real interests of homeowners and vacant lot owners,” Wallace said. “I haven’t heard anything but criticism. If someone else has a solution--share it with us.”

The plan would encourage some absentee owners to sell their land to other landowners who would purchase the property in exchange for the right to build larger houses, Wallace said.

But this proposal drew scorn from all categories of property owners.

“I think you should have different provisions for people who already live here and those with vacant lots,” said homeowner Pamela Hanover to the applause of many. “You just can’t treat us the same.”

But she was followed by the owner of a vacant lot, who pleaded for the county to consider his hardships too.

“I’m not a speculator. I bought my land with the full intention of building a house and moving there,” said Lance Korthals. “I want to be homeowner just like the rest of you. I want Malibu Lake just the way it is. I just want to move there too.”

NEXT STEP

After Wednesday’s meeting, county officials said they would incorporate the objections of residents and owners into the plan they are drafting. Planner Lee Stark said he hopes to present a final draft of the Malibu Lake Community Standards District Plan to the Regional Planning Commission by October. If approved by the commission, the plan would go before the County Board of Supervisors by early next year. The goal, Stark said, is to receive final approval on a new plan before the building moratorium imposed by supervisors last year expires in February.