Decision on Community Boundary Lines Is Delayed : Maps: Residents and merchants tell Public Works Committee they were left out of plan to set perimeters.

A plan to establish official boundaries for San Fernando Valley communities came under fire Wednesday from several Valley residents and business leaders who said they were left out of discussions to draft the new lines.

Most notably, the president of the Northridge Chamber of Commerce said he was never notified that the new boundaries would eliminate about 35,000 homes in the northern end of his community to form the Porter Ranch community.

The City Council’s Public Works Committee had been scheduled to adopt a map with the proposed boundaries Wednesday, but the meeting attracted about a dozen Valley residents and business owners.

After hearing the concerns of several speakers, Councilman Richard Alarcon, committee chairman, decided against taking any action until a public hearing can be scheduled in the Valley, most likely next month.

“There are some people with absolutely no idea that this was going on,” Alarcon said.

The boundary map was drafted in response to squabbles in the past few years over the names and boundaries of various communities in the Valley, said city legislative assistant Bill Pruner. Alarcon said he requested that the city draft the map years ago when he was Valley representative to former Mayor Tom Bradley.

Since 1987, three communities in the Valley were renamed and at least seven others had their boundaries changed.

Once the new boundaries are approved by the Public Works Committee and then by the entire City Council, they can only be changed by a vote of the City Council. At present, council members have the power to designate community names.

Although most of the boundaries have been more or less established for years, some form completely new communities.

In the map, a Porter Ranch community is created out of two northern sections of the Northridge and Chatsworth communities. But James E. Beal, president of the Northridge Chamber of Commerce, said his group opposes any change that lops the area north of Devonshire Street off to form Porter Ranch. He wants the northern boundary of Northridge to remain at the city boundary north of the Simi Valley Freeway.

“We have never been consulted,” he said. “We are very concerned.”

Alarcon suggested that Beal contact Councilman Hal Bernson, whose district includes Northridge and Chatsworth, because Bernson approved the boundaries for that area.

A spokeswoman for Bernson said the councilman supported the new map boundaries because he believed that the map had the blessing of all Valley chamber groups.

Other speakers at the meeting asked for minor changes to the boundaries of Granada Hills, Studio City and Shadow Hills, a new community formed at the west end of Sunland.

The new boundaries also establish for the first time the community of Sherman Village, a neighborhood bordered by Coldwater Canyon Boulevard, the Tujunga Wash and the Ventura Freeway. That area has previously been considered the northernmost section of Studio City.