Judge Voids Plans for Canyon Development : Courts: Ordinance giving city authority to approve more homes than anticipated by L.A. County is overturned.

A judge has voided plans for a 250-home development in a secluded canyon in Calabasas and overturned an ordinance critics said was an end run around an earlier court decision against the project.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Diane Wayne on Wednesday overturned an ordinance giving Calabasas authority to approve the construction of more homes in the Las Virgenes Valley of the Santa Monica Mountains than were originally anticipated by Los Angeles County.

“We’re delighted by the judge’s decision,” said Frank Angel, attorney for Save Open Space, an environmental group that challenged the project. “It has removed a potential 300-acre stain in the heart of a riparian area.”

Calabasas originally approved the 250-home Micor Ventures project in 1992 with the belief that the city could stray from guidelines for the area set by Los Angeles County, which would have permitted only 81 homes there. It was, ironically, the year after Calabasas incorporated in the wake of complaints by residents that too many large developments had been approved by Los Angeles County.

Save Open Space had argued that the county’s guidelines prevailed because the city had not rejected them before approving the Micor development.

The city of Calabasas, however, is working on its own General Plan which, once approved, will supersede the old county guidelines for the 900-acre site and the rest of the city. As drafted, the General Plan would allow 250 homes in Las Virgenes Valley, but Angel said his clients hope to convince the city otherwise.

Mayor Marvin Lopata on Thursday defended the council’s approval of the project, saying that, under an agreement with the developer, 600 acres would be set aside as open area. And he said this week’s ruling puts new cities in a bind.

“The whole reason for the incorporation of a city is to take control of land issues that affect the citizens,” Lopata said. “What this case says it that we don’t have that right.”

Meanwhile, Micor Ventures has lost control of the property to its investors, further clouding the future of the property.

“It could be for sale or (the investors) could be looking for a joint venture,” said Charles Cohen, counsel to the property owners. “The principal approach is to hope that (Micor) can come back in and complete the project.”

Before the project could be revived, though, it would have to be re-approved under the new General Plan.

Wednesday’s ruling comes out of the second of two lawsuits filed by Save Open Space regarding the project. In the first, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled in 1993 that Calabasas is bound to follow rules set by Los Angeles County until the city establishes its own land-use plan. The city lost an appeal of that decision in January.

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After the 1993 ruling, Calabasas approved an “urgency” ordinance, giving itself more control over planning decisions until it finished its own General Plan. In her ruling Wednesday, Judge Wayne called the law arbitrary and capricious and overturned it.

William Fulton, publisher of California Planning and Development Report, said the series of rulings may provide a lesson to cities that incorporate in the future.

“From now on, new cities are going to have to be more forward-thinking from Day 1,” Fulton said. “To avoid this type of trap, they’re going to pass Calabasas’ urgency ordinance, but they’re going to do it from the beginning.”