LAS LOMAS PLANNER SAYS HE MAY SUE L.A. OVER 'SPHERE'.Byline: Kerry Cavanaugh Staff Writer With the fate of his 5,800-home Las Lomas Las Lomas may refer to:
The City Council is expected today to approve an application to extend the sphere of influence, which would split the 555-acre site where Palmer has proposed building homes, shopping centers and office space. With roughly 75 percent of the land outside the city's sphere, Palmer would have a hard time annexing to Los Angeles for its plentiful water as he had planned to do. In a May 3 letter to the City Council, Palmer's attorney warned the city's sphere of influence proposal is ``legally deficient'' because it doesn't consider the potential effects on Las Lomas. To avoid litigation An action brought in court to enforce a particular right. The act or process of bringing a lawsuit in and of itself; a judicial contest; any dispute. When a person begins a civil lawsuit, the person enters into a process called litigation. , it says, the city should redraw To redisplay an image on screen whether text or graphics. The concept is that the first time elements are displayed, they are "drawn," and if something is changed, they are "redrawn." Applications often have a Refresh command that redraws the screen. the sphere boundaries to fully include or exclude the project area. ``We think that the ideas behind Las Lomas are too important to abandon at this point,'' Hilary Norton Orozco, vice president of community development for Las Lomas, said in an interview Monday. ``There, hopefully, is a place in which we can all reach agreement about what could appropriately be built at that site.'' But some city leaders said the letter would not deter the council from making its application to the Los Angeles Agency Formation Commission, which oversees boundary and annexation issues. ``From policy perspective and planning perspective, the city can't listen to people's lawyers and say if they are going to sue us, we should do something differently,'' said Mitchell Englander, Councilman Greig Smith's chief of staff. The sphere of influence outlines the probable, ultimate boundaries of the city. It's a precursor to annexation and it gives city officials power to review projects that occur within its sphere. Smith, who represents the north San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. and has opposed Las Lomas, has said the proposed sphere is not designed to block the minicity. The sphere was initiated in 2000 and simply establishes the logical boundary of Los Angeles at the ridgeline ridge·line n. See ridge. Noun 1. ridgeline - a long narrow range of hills ridge arete - a sharp narrow ridge found in rugged mountains , which is the natural division between the San Fernando San Fernando, city, Argentina San Fernando (săn fərnăn`dō), city (1991 pop. 144,761), Buenos Aires prov., E Argentina. It is a district administrative center in the Greater Buenos Aires area. and Santa Clarita valleys. The sphere issue resurfaced last December, shortly after Los Angeles and Santa Clarita officials reached an informal agreement to split jurisdiction of the Las Lomas property, effectively blocking the project as proposed. Land south of the ridgeline would be in Los Angeles' sphere and land north of the ridgeline would be in Santa Clarita's sphere. Kerry Cavanaugh, (818) 713-3746 kerry.cavanaugh(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): map Map: LAS LOMAS DILEMMA SOURCE: Los Angeles Planning Department Daily News |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion