County Commission Backs Building Restrictions for Malibou Lake : Development: Residents support move as step toward protecting secluded community from fire. Board of Supervisors will make final decision on the matter.

A controversial set of building restrictions intended to ease the danger of wildfires around the mountain community of Malibou Lake was approved Wednesday by the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission.

Although they wanted tighter restrictions, residents of the secluded hamlet applauded the move as the first step toward protecting their community from the sort of firestorm that roared through the Santa Monica Mountains in November.

“This is the best we could do, and we recognize that,” said Joel Schulman, treasurer of the Malibou Lakeside Homeowners Assn.

But owners of vacant lots around the man-made lake south of Agoura Hills complained that the new rules would make building on their land too expensive and selling it all but impossible.

“It makes you pay to have a decent house,” said Phyllis Daugherty, spokeswoman for the Malibou Lakeside Vacant Landowners. “Why should we have to pay extra to build on what we’ve already been paying taxes on? This is a misuse of the process.”

The rules approved Wednesday must still be reviewed by the Board of Supervisors. If passed by the board, the Malibou Lake Community Standards District would make permanent a set of temporary restrictions in effect since January, 1993.

County officials hope that the guidelines developed for Malibou Lake can be applied in other mountain communities prone to fast-moving brush fires, such as Topanga.

Under the rules, new houses must have four parking spaces and interior fire sprinklers, and can cover no more than 15% of the lot. In addition, builders of new homes can be required to widen streets near their property to accommodate firetrucks.

Construction proposals that do not meet the requirements must be reviewed through the county’s conditional-use permit process, which can cost as much as $4,000.

A landowner had challenged the constitutionality of the guidelines in court, but a judge threw out the lawsuit in July, saying the issue should pass through the regular county approval process before a suit could be heard. Opponents said they may now launch another legal challenge.

The need for stricter guidelines emerged three years ago when residents complained about new construction proposed for their community, which is connected by a network of narrow, winding roads.

They protested that more houses and more cars would make it nearly impossible to escape during a brush fire. Owners of vacant land agreed that fire danger in the community was high, but they complained that residents had added to the threat by making illegal--and possibly substandard--additions to their homes.

“The Community Standards District is not the solve-all or the end-all,” county Planner John Huttinger said. “It’s part of the entire package to deal with the situation there.”