Board OKs Mountain Plan That Allows Fewer Homes

In a wide-ranging move to protect the Santa Monica Mountains, county supervisors Tuesday unanimously approved a blueprint that seeks to limit development in the rugged but fragile wild lands that border urban Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors’ acceptance of the Santa Monica Mountains North Area Plan included an eleventh-hour adoption of lower allowable building densities than had been proposed.

Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky introduced a motion that reversed a controversial Regional Planning Commission decision to increase--in some cases, to double or quadruple--the number of homes that could be built on eight key parcels.

The new land use document will guide development for 21,172 acres of rural, unincorporated land in a 32-square-mile area from Calabasas to the Ventura County line.

Under the so-called North Area Plan, about 3,700 homes can be built instead of the 5,400 allowable under a current land document.

“This is the culmination of an almost six-year project,” Yaroslavsky said. “This is one of our most precious parts of our county, and we have a largely good plan.”

The affected land includes spectacular views and mountain peaks above state and national park land, including Malibu Creek State Park, Paramount Ranch and the Peter Strauss Ranch.

Three congressmen had asked supervisors to reduce the allowable density: Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks), Howard L. Berman (D-Mission Hills) and Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles).

About 250 people, many of them wearing buttons emblazoned with “Down With Upzoning,” packed the supervisors’ boardroom for a 2 1/2-hour public hearing. More than 50 addressed the board.

“The selfish whims of a few should not alter the direction of the majority,” testified Gene Talmadge, a planning administrator for the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District, one of the agencies that had helped craft the plan.

Dozens of speakers criticized the plan, including developers who feared that it would derail their home project plans and equestrian advocates who said the plan didn’t protect their recreation.

The prior land document for the Santa Monica Mountains was adopted in 1981, and it was often ignored.

A Times analysis revealed that county supervisors, especially Mike Antonovich, whose 5th District once included the region, frequently approved subdivisions much larger than were permitted.

In his motion to reinstate lower density, Yaroslavsky requested that several parcels, totaling about 1,500 acres, be returned to a designation of one house per 20 acres from the one per 10 acres approved by the Planning Commission.

Many people who had labored on the plan for years celebrated its passage.

“It’s the first time the county adopted a land use plan that recognizes the area is special,” said Dave Brown, a former chairman of an advisory committee for the plan.