Planning Panel OKs Canyon Oaks Project : Topanga Canyon: The controversial plan for 97 luxury homes now goes to the Board of Supervisors. Critics say they’ll continue to fight it.

Nearly 15 years after it began, the longest-running land use dispute in Los Angeles County history inched forward Wednesday when the Regional Planning Commission approved plans to build 97 luxury homes and a private golf course in upper Topanga Canyon.

Despite the commissioners’ 3-2 vote, plans for Canyon Oaks Estates must be reviewed by the Board of Supervisors, which rejected a similar proposal two years ago and ordered the development redesigned.

Project manager Charles McLaughlin said he was gratified by the commission’s decision, adding that the proposal he will take before the board later this year is considerably different from previous versions.

Critics, unconvinced, vowed to continue their attacks when the project comes before the board. And they have said that if it is approved by the supervisors, they will sue to block it.

“I wouldn’t necessarily call it a setback,” said opponent Susan Petrulas Nissman, co-chair of the Topanga Assn. for a Scenic Community. “This was a dress rehearsal. We always knew we were going before the board.”

Nissman and other opponents contend that the development--which would cover 257 acres in the Summit Valley, south of Woodland Hills--will destroy wildlife habitat and degrade the quality of water in Topanga Creek.

Some commissioners agreed.

Chairman Richard Wulliger, appointed by Supervisor Ed Edelman, said it would be a mistake to approve the project. “This is a unique rural area, underline rural ,” he said.

“I believe we would be shoving an incompatible development down the throat of a vast majority of the neighbors,” Wulliger said, adding that he would not oppose a project that proposed fewer homes and no golf course.

But Commissioner Robert Ryan, appointed by Supervisor Deane Dana, responded that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” He said such a project would be incompatible in the middle of bucolic Topanga, but supported Canyon Oaks because of its proximity to the urbanized San Fernando Valley.

“I think it will provide a nice transition,” Ryan said.

The application to build the project next comes back to the commissioners so they can give formal approval to a series of mostly minor conditions tied to Wednesday’s vote. After that approval, the project goes before county supervisors for the second time since it was proposed in 1978, under the name Montevideo.

In 1991, the supervisors rejected the project, but three months later reversed themselves and ordered it reconsidered. That hearing was pending when the Montevideo partnership filed for bankruptcy.

The project was taken over by one of the partners, Sharon Disney Lund, daughter of Walt Disney. Lund died earlier this year and the project is now being steered by a family trust.

The plan approved Wednesday is dramatically different from the original vision in 1978. That included more houses, a hotel, a shopping center and equestrian facilities. It was scaled down in response to community concerns.

Although current plans call for the same number of houses as the one supervisors rejected in 1991, McLaughlin said his development will be more sensitive to the environment and will require less grading.

He discounted the contentions of environmentalists that the property is used by wildlife to pass from ridge to ridge, pointing out that busy Topanga Canyon Boulevard poses a roadblock to animal migration.

McLaughlin also said water filtration systems built as part of the project will improve the quality of water in Topanga Creek--not degrade it, as opponents claim.

In a campaign to muster community support, the developers agreed to donate $500,000 toward the construction and maintenance of hiking trails if the project is ultimately approved. Opponents called the offer a bribe.