REVISED STEVENSON RANCH DEVELOPMENT APPROVED.

Byline: Heather MacDonald Staff Writer

LOS ANGELES - County officials approved a revised plan Tuesday for the third phase of Stevenson Ranch, despite opposition from residents and environmentalists.

The new plan for the latest phase of the development on the west side of the Golden State Freeway includes a new park and school site, more single-family homes and a superior drainage system, said Ellen Fitzgerald, a regional planning assistant with Los Angeles County.

Opponents of the plan said they would appeal the approval of the project to the county Regional Planning Commission within the next week and a half.

The plan also calls for 36 oak trees, including eight heritage trees, to be removed.

The project calls for 140 single-family homes to be built north of Pico Canyon Road, west of The Old Road, east of Stevenson Ranch Road and south of Steinbeck Avenue, along with 126 condominiums and 567 apartments on 112 acres. About half of the apartments will be set aside for senior citizens.

The revised plan, created by Stevenson Ranch Venture LLC, does away with a series of drainage lakes scattered throughout the development and replaces it with a plan for a drainage channel that will run through the center of the community and into a basin at the southeast corner of Pico Canyon Road and Stevenson Ranch Road.

The revised system is superior to the original drainage plan, Fitzgerald said.