Residents Frown on Ladyface Plan

At first, residents along rural Cornell Road thought Los Angeles County’s new plan for the Santa Monica Mountains--a blueprint proposing tighter restrictions on suburban sprawl--sounded pretty good.

Now, as a developer prepares to build a large subdivision just south of Agoura Hills in the foothills of Ladyface Mountain, they’re not so sure.

The proposed Santa Monica Mountains North Area Plan, still in hearings before the Regional Planning Commission, encourages developers to build in clusters to preserve more open space. If approved, it would actually reduce the number of homes that could be built at the Ladyface site from 129 to 108, county planners said.

But the Cornell neighbors argue that the plan’s approach would swamp the rugged hillsides near their spacious lots and horse stables in a sea of generic-looking tract housing.

“Clustering is a bad idea if you’re trying to preserve a rural landscape,” said Steve Hess, a homeowner who heads the residents group Cornell Preservation Organization.

If the subdivision is built, “it’s going to be a tract development in a decidedly rural environment,” Hess said. “There’s going to be curbs, there’s going to be street lights and repetitive architecture--you know, rows of these little pink houses. When it comes right down to it, that’s exactly what we oppose.”

The debate represents one skirmish in a much larger tug-of-war over the future of the Santa Monica Mountains, a wild oasis of canyons, ridges and rolling hills in the midst of an urban metropolis.

The current version of the Santa Monica Mountains plan, adopted in 1981, was often ignored. A 1998 Times analysis of land-use practices revealed that county officials routinely approved subdivisions larger than the plan permitted, allowing developers to build 2,200 homes on land designated for 1,000.

Covering 32 square miles in the northern half of the mountains, the new plan aims to balance preservation of some of Southern California’s last natural places with limited growth that minimizes environmental impact. The plan makes preservation the top priority for undeveloped land and discourages new road construction.

“It reduces the maximum number of homes that could be built throughout the area by approximately 30% and helps ensure that all development is sensitive to the natural resources,” said Lee Stark, the county planner overseeing the proposal.

The Planning Commission could adopt the North Area Plan as soon as April, forwarding it to the county Board of Supervisors for final approval. The next hearing on the proposal is scheduled for Feb. 28.

The Cornell neighbors agree that the plan is better than the current growth blueprint, Hess said, but they object to the emphasis on clustering--particularly a new provision that offers developers a 25% density bonus for grouping their buildings together to save open space.

The density bonus was added to the most recent draft, released in November, after commissioners asked staff to find ways to promote clustering, Stark said. The staff opposes the incentive for clustering.

As for the Ladyface project, Stark suggested that the Cornell neighbors hold their fire until that proposal reaches the public hearing stage--and support the North Area Plan in the meantime. Vance Moran, who asked for approval to build the subdivision, has not yet submitted an environmental impact report, Stark said.

The project would be built on a 320-acre site just south of Agoura Hills, in an unincorporated area near the intersection of Cornell and Kanan roads. After initially requesting approval for 139 homes, Moran has scaled back the project to 123. The North Area Plan would whittle the subdivision to no more than 108 homes.

Because the houses would be clustered, almost 250 acres would be designated as permanent open space, Stark said.

Moran, a longtime Agoura Hills resident, said he is neither surprised nor concerned by the opposition to his planned colony of luxury homes, each priced in the $1.5-million range. For more than a decade, he has been negotiating with the city of Agoura Hills to build a retail center on a commercial site next to the proposed subdivision.

“The truth is, the people living down in that area would protest if one home was built on that 320 acres,” Moran said. “They have the attitude that ‘We’re here, this is our own little isolated area.’ And I think that’s pretty selfish.”

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’ You know, rows of these little pink houses. When it comes right down to it, that’s exactly what we oppose. ‘