Tentative OK Given for 341 Homes on Ecological Preserve

Despite objections from Las Virgenes-area residents and environmental groups, the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission on Wednesday gave preliminary approval to a controversial housing development on nearly 500 acres of hilly, oak-studded land designated as an ecological preserve.

Approval of the Malibu Terrace project on 494 acres west of Las Virgenes Road near Calabasas came after more than three hours of testimony against the project and was counter to staff recommendations. The developer, Las Virgenes Properties, wants to build 341 housing units and 73,700 square feet of commercial space on the property, which is part of the 2,920-acre county-designated Palo Comado Significant Ecological Area.

The vote to recommend that the County Board of Supervisors approve the project was 3 to 2. Supervisor Ed Edelman, who earlier this year advocated greater protection for Significant Ecological Areas threatened by development, so far has not taken a position on the project, press deputy Joel Bellman said.

“It’s going to get a close look,” Bellman said.

Peter Ireland, a senior staff member of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, said approval of the Malibu Terrace project sets a precedent that might endanger the 61 areas identified by the county in 1980 as being ecologically significant.

Even though such areas are considered important for wildlife migration and as examples of increasingly rare landscapes, many have been at least partially scarred by housing and commercial projects. Ireland said Wednesday’s decision means that political pressure applied by developers is being allowed to undermine efforts to protect the SEAs.

“It puts them in a very threatened category,” he said.

The dozen or so residents who testified against the project primarily objected to a county plan to extend Thousand Oaks Boulevard, long considered as an alternate route to ease congestion on the Ventura Freeway. Under conditions of the approval, Las Virgenes Properties agreed to give the county $4 million to build the road along the southern edge of its project. The road now ends in Agoura Hills several miles to the west.

Residents said if Thousand Oaks Boulevard were extended it would cross the mouth of Cheeseboro Canyon, a scenic and isolated National Park Service area. The residents contended that the commission gave its approval to the project in order to finance the road’s construction.

County planning officials recommended that the project be rejected because it proposes building three times more housing units than called for under the county’s General Plan, and would require ripping out 193 oak trees and grading about 4 million cubic yards of dirt, Planner Don Culbertson said.

Because of those and other concerns, the commissioners must review their approval of the project again later this year. At that time, they must cite specific reasons for ignoring the staff’s recommendations.

One commissioner, J. Paul Robinson, hinted that the developer’s promise to dedicate 300 acres of the project as open space and to build 218 units of affordable housing in an area dominated by expensive single-family homes was reason enough to override environmental considerations.

But, saying that the Santa Monica Mountains were like the lungs of Los Angeles, Commissioner Richard Wulliger said: “We cannot keep chopping away at the lungs.”

“This project is inconsistent with the area around it,” said Wulliger, saying that the site is abutted on three sides by vacant land. “The entire project swallows an SEA. It reminds me of Iraq swallowing Kuwait.”

BACKGROUND

In 1980, county planners identified 61 Significant Ecological Areas in an attempt to preserve what remains of the county’s diverse natural history. The SEAs were selected for their value as habitat and migration corridors for wildlife, or as strongholds for threatened plants and animals. But many SEAs have been at least partially taken over by development. Supervisor Ed Edelman has urged the county to consider tightening its restrictions on building on SEAs.

Malibu Terrace is one of four developments proposed for the 2,920-acre Palo Comado Canyon SEA. The project approved Wednesday is a scaled-back version of a proposal that was rejected last year by planning commissioners. That proposal included 1,700 apartments, 116 houses and 60,000 square feet of commercial space.