County Supervisors Approve 3,600-Home Castaic Development : NorthLake: No opposition is voiced. Community support is attributed to the many amenities proposed.

With no public protest and barely a comment, Los Angeles County supervisors gave preliminary approval Thursday to a development in the Castaic area that is one of the largest to come across their desks in recent years.

NorthLake would include about 3,600 dwellings as well as wide swaths of commercial and industrial development sandwiched between Castaic Lake and the Golden State Freeway. Local residents and officials support the project largely because of the perquisites it offers, including road improvements and land for a new library and schools.

Thursday’s unanimous vote changed the zoning on about 1,300 acres of land north of Lake Hughes Road, most of which had been zoned for agriculture. It also adopted an overall plan for the development that entitles the developer--Cook Ranch Associates--to build up to the density it requested.

In November, when the county’s Regional Planning Commission endorsed the project, several commissioners expressed concern that it was going forward without a specific development agreement--usually required for larger projects. Such an agreement would further define the project and commit the developer to specific actions to mitigate the impact on the area.

However, the commission approved the plan unanimously after a developer representative testified that potential lenders, made cautious by the recession, would not finance the project until the county gave its go-ahead.

Although environmental studies show that the project will pollute the air, county planners said its amenities provide a worthwhile trade-off.

Plans for NorthLake call for a public golf course, tennis and swimming facilities, park sites, bicycle and jogging trails, a public library, a fire station and two schools. Because of those commitments, the project has gained support from nearby residents and from agencies such as the Castaic Town Council and the local school district.

In making the motion to approve the plan, Supervisor Mike Antonovich noted the lack of opposition.

NorthLake, which its developers hope to begin building in 1994, will ultimately have about 2,300 houses, 1,300 multifamily dwellings such as condominiums and townhouses, 170,000 square feet of commercial property and more than half a million square feet of industrial space.

It would not require removal of any oak trees, nor would it cut into any of the nearby county-designated Significant Ecological Areas, according to county planners.