Public Interest Briefs

Imagine a tract of houses in the Yosemite valley, or someone’s backyard pool next to Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park. Somehow nature’s beauty just wouldn’t be the same.

The great outdoors is great in large part because we can get away from signs of habitation. Who wants to visit a mountain park and view rooflines along with ridge lines, or watch local birds fly over a canyon of local suburbanites bringing home groceries and washing their cars in the driveway? That is exactly what will happen in Agoura unless a decision by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is overturned.

CLIPI is providing counsel to the Sierra Club and the Las Virgenes Homeowners Federations in a newly filed lawsuit challenging the Supervisors’ approval for a 150-home development on part of the former Paramount Ranch.

The rolling, oak-studded grasslands provided the backdrop for westerns made by Paramount Studios in the 1920s, ‘30s and ‘40s. More recently, it has been home to the popular spring-time Renaissance Pleasure Faire. The 320-acre site lies next to a 436-acre parcel of former Paramount Ranch land that was bought by the U.S. Park Service and is part of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation area. 

“The two pieces of land are part of the same valley,” said David Brown, vice president of the Las Virgenes Homeowners Federation, which represents thousands of area residents. “The logical thing is to join them. If the homes are built, you will not be able to go to the Park Service land and feel you have escaped from the city. The public paid $8 million for that land, and it will be ruined as a natural setting.”

The Park Service considers this remaining parcel top priority for preservation and, with the help of other park agencies, had planned to buy it. By January, several million dollars had been allocated for the purchase based on fair market value as impacted by the COunty’s local area plan that would permit 102 homes on the property.

In March, however, before the purchase could be made, landowner Art Whizzen and developer Brian Heller persuaded the Board of Supervisors to upzone the land. The two asked for permission to build 159 luxury homes and received approval for 150. The land’s value would then potentially skyrocket out of reach of the Park Service’s budget.

The lawsuit challenges the Board’s action on a number of grounds, many of them related to a faulty environmental impact report (EIR) prepared for the project.

The California Environmental Quality Act requires that an EIR discuss alternative uses of the property, yet this report barely mentions the most obvious use–as prime parkland.

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