Decision Delayed on Limiting Houses Near Air Force Base : Lancaster: Builders complain to the Planning Commission that decreasing the allowable density in the area will devalue their land.
For the second time in two years, a plan to drastically limit new home construction in undeveloped areas of Lancaster adjoining U. S. Air Force Plant 42 has gotten bogged down at City Hall after protests from builders who own land in the area.
At issue is whether encroaching residential construction could lead to the kind of neighborhood complaints against aircraft noise that afflict the Burbank and Van Nuys airports in the San Fernando Valley. City planners fear that such complaints would provoke the Air Force into closing the facility, the area’s largest employer with about 7,400 jobs.
Plant 42, a 5,700-acre production and test facility, has one of the last “touch and go” Air Force runways on the West Coast where pilots can test new jets and train by making repeated, uninterrupted landings and takeoffs relatively free from noise complaints. The complex contributes about $250 million in yearly payroll to the local economy.
The city’s Planning Commission on Monday night continued until Nov. 30 its hearing on a measure by city planners to limit new construction in an 800-acre area next to the facility to no more than one or two houses per acre. Current plans allow urban densities, two to five homes per acre.
Developers complained that the change would significantly devalue their land. But city planners and Air Force officials say the change is needed to prevent the potential loss of Plant 42 due to creeping residential growth.
“Virtually every Air Force base” on the service’s list of bases that could be closed is there because it has a problem with encroaching residential neighborhoods, warned Air Force Lt. Col. Scott Allen, the plant’s commander. “Only the fittest will survive the closures of the ‘90s,” he said.
In April, 1991, the Lancaster City Council balked at approving similar restrictions over an even wider area surrounding Plant 42 until the city approved a new General Plan document. That occurred earlier this year, but because of the City Council’s delay, one major housing development already is under construction just north of Plant 42. The Kaufman & Broad Co.’s 390-acre California Traditions tract at 30th Street East, which is to have 1,065 houses, will reach south to Avenue L, the plant’s northern border.
Most of the Lancaster areas immediately north of Plant 42 are undeveloped at present, but are zoned for urban residential use. The proposal by city planners would downzone to rural densities 800 acres bounded by Avenues K and L and 15th and 40th Streets East.
But developers Monday night called the proposal too harsh. Some challenged the Air Force’s designation of the southern portion of the area as an overflight zone subject to loud jet noise, saying noise caused by the facility’s aircraft actually has impact on a much larger area of south Lancaster that is already developed.
Several developers instead argued for an alternative proposal to switch about 470 acres to business park zoning, which would be much more lucrative. City planners opposed the notion, but Allen said the Air Force actually would prefer that to even a smaller number of houses.
Planning commissioners gave little indication how they feel about the latest proposals. They decided, without public comment, to adjourn after an hourlong hearing that did not begin until 10 p.m. Any changes ultimately must be approved by the City Council.
