Panel Reduces Size of Porter Ranch Plan

While questions remain about its future tenants and effect on traffic, opponents of the long-debated Porter Ranch housing and retail development applauded a City Council committee’s decision Tuesday to shrink the plan by nearly 1.4 million square feet.

The Planning and Land Use Management Committee is chaired by Councilman Hal Bernson, who represents the northwest San Fernando Valley. He said Tuesday’s unanimous vote to forward the matter to the full council represented the city’s ongoing efforts to scrutinize the plan.

As recently as 1993, developers planned 6 million square feet of commercial space. Bernson said that figure has been cut by about half. The latest plan calls for a 660,000-square-foot shopping center to anchor the development, but developers said they have not yet negotiated with specific tenants.

The oft-amended proposal, which originated in 1990 before being stymied by the recession and sluggish real estate market, is scheduled to be reexamined by several city departments before any final decision.

“We have no real approval to go ahead,” stressed Michael S. Woodward, an attorney representing the Porter Ranch Development Co. “Today was just a small step.”

Residents have feared the development between Winnetka and Corbin avenues above the 118 Freeway would generate sufficient traffic to disrupt the neighborhood’s pastoral feel. They especially fear an extension of Corbin Avenue north of Devonshire Avenue, an alternative already approved by the city Planning Commission.

Several dozen people at Tuesday’s committee meeting brought signs with messages such as “Save our Quiet Streets” and “Don’t Increase Traffic Where Kids Play.”

But much of the residents’ testimony was softened by Bernson’s assurance that the Corbin Avenue extension would not occur until the development was complete and traffic mitigation measures were in place, a process that probably would take several years.

“People are placated for the time being,” longtime Chatsworth resident Jeanine Strauss, 58, said after the meeting. “But I still don’t know why we need this. We’ve got empty buildings downtown, empty real estate all over the city. Why do they have to build up here?”