Workshop to Address Plan for Corridor

Designed to dramatically restrict growth in an area that’s become a haven from urban congestion, the preliminary Ventura Corridor Area Plan has fueled spirited responses from conservationists and developers.

Property owners will have a chance to express their views and talk with a Los Angeles County planning staff representative about the plan’s proposals from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday during a public workshop at Round Meadow Elementary School, 5151 Round Meadow Road.

The proposal covers the cities and unincorporated areas from the Los Angeles city limits to the Ventura County line. Saturday’s workshop, however, will focus on how the plan would affect unincorporated properties in the Santa Monica Mountains and surrounding areas.

A copy of the plan is available for review at all Los Angeles County public libraries.

A wave of land-use battles appears to be looming over the proposal, which is intended to ease traffic, preserve scenic hillsides and increase municipal cooperation in planning development. At a previous public workshop on the plan, small-scale residential property owners said they would suffer most under the proposal’s guidelines.

In a 60-square-mile area bounded by Ventura County to the north and west, a coastal zone to the south and the city of Los Angeles to the east and northeast, the plan would reduce building density in about 5,000 acres, or roughly half of the developable county land in the area. Most affected by the proposal would be parcels ranging in size from 10 to 40 acres.

Additional public hearings on the plan will be held in upcoming months and a final vote on the proposal by Los Angeles County supervisors is not expected before the end of the year.