Placentia Zoning Change Request Weighed : Land use: Plan calls for reduced number of homes in one area, increased density in another.

A developer will ask the City Council tonight to consider a scaled-back zoning change request for property in the center of the Alta Vista Country Club golf course.

If approved, the request would reduce housing density on a parcel south of Alta Vista Street and east of Rose Drive from as many as 565 homes on 54.4 acres to a maximum of 416 homes on 49.7 acres.

While reducing density seldom causes a stir, residents have questioned the plan because the developer would wants to increase density in one area in exchange for voluntarily reducing the number of homes in another.

Developer Gil Kraemer also will ask the city to rezone a 21.7-acre parcel to allow eight single-family homes per acre, instead of the 4.5 homes per acre now specified.

That trade-off, if approved, would rezone 29.4 acres now allowing 440 units--as many as 15 condominiums and townhomes per acre--down to 27 acres with eight units each, or a total of 216. The developer initially proposed building 258 units on 25.6 acres in the same area.

The proposal would affect the golf course, requiring that the 10th hole be moved to accommodate the new housing units.

Kraemer and planner John Chapman told the council last month that the home-buying trend is toward detached houses on small lots, rather than big houses on large lots or attached homes and condominiums.

The council postponed a vote after residents of The Masters tract, across the street from the golf course property, said the plan would bring their property values down.