City, Developer of Porter Ranch Discuss Growth Guarantee Deal : Planning: Builder would add public improvements in exchange for assurances that the project won’t be scaled back.

Los Angeles planning officials and the developer of Porter Ranch inched toward agreement Thursday on a controversial accord that would protect the massive project from slow-growth restrictions for 20 years.

“The gap has been considerably narrowed,” said Ronald Silverman, a lawyer for the Porter Ranch Development Co., after a tedious two-hour discussion with city attorneys before the Planning Commission.

During the session, Silverman and commissioners appeared to agree on key provisions of the deal, including affirming the city’s right to interrupt development at Porter Ranch in the event of such unforeseen circumstances as a prolonged drought or overloaded sewer systems and landfills.

But the city and the Porter Ranch developer remain at an impasse over other provisions, such as how much the developer will contribute to the construction of a bridge over Aliso Canyon at Sesnon Boulevard, long considered necessary to create an east-west route that would be an alternative to the Simi Valley Freeway.

Porter Ranch has proposed paying a flat fee of $2 million toward the $10-million cost of the bridge, but city officials want to be able to charge the developer more if the project creates heavier traffic on the bridge than anticipated. That issue and others are expected to be negotiated by attorneys over the next two weeks.

The accord basically seeks to provide the development group headed by Nathan Shapell a 20-year guarantee that the Porter Ranch Specific Plan adopted a year ago by the City Council will not be changed.

“If we don’t have an assurance that the rules are frozen for the period of the build-out then we don’t have the assurances we need,” Silverman said.

The Specific Plan permits the construction of up to 3,395 houses and apartments and 6 million square feet of commercial space on the 1,300-acre Porter Ranch site north of Chatsworth.

In exchange for security against tampering with the Specific Plan by slow-growth advocates, the agreement now being negotiated would require Porter Ranch Development to provide public improvements--mainly to alleviate traffic congestion--beyond those mandated by the Specific Plan.