By SAUL RUBIN
Staff Reporter
Ambitious plans on a drawing board are one thing, but political and economic realities are another. And that’s been the problem with building the latest phase of Porter Ranch in the northwest San Fernando Valley.
Last spring, the L.A. City Council approved a scaled-down version of the residential and commercial development once envisioned as a $2 billion project that would rival Century City in status and scope.
The original plans for 6 million square feet of housing and commercial space fell victim to changing economic times and political pressure brought by residents of the surrounding community, who questioned the size of the development and the problems it could create with increased traffic congestion.
Current plans include the recently opened New Porter Ranch Town Center, a 600,000-square-foot shopping center. Coming soon are two new guarded communities featuring homes between 3,300 square feet and 4,000 square feet. The two new housing projects will be called Villagio and Renaissance, with the latter allowing buyers certain options to customize their homes.
This latest phase is being developed by S & S; Construction Co., a division of Beverly Hills-based Shapell Industries in a joint venture with Liberty Building Co.
Since the overall Porter Ranch project began in 1974, more than 3,000 homes have been built and more than 4,000 remain to be constructed. The schedule for completion depends on market conditions. Officials with Shapell Industries have said they don’t expect any change in the plans as the remainder of residential construction continues.
The shopping center was originally planned to include upscale boutiques. Instead, new tenants are of the big-box variety, including Best Buy, Toys ‘R’ Us and the one that’s really caused an uproar with the surrounding community, a Wal-Mart.
“The community did not agree nor did it desire the type of tenants they have in there,” said Walter Prince, a nearby resident and member of PRIDE, a group of homeowners that has kept a close eye on the development for the past decade. “Those homes up there are $300,000, $400,000, and up to $700,000, and the people there would rather see a more upscale tenant in there than a Wal-Mart.”
Prince is not only concerned that the big-box stores will increase traffic, but that they are not as aesthetically pleasing as the surrounding residential community.
“The worst part of this is that whatever they are doing now is the link for anything else,” he said. “What’s going to be going in the next part of the development? You start out dooming yourself.”
The homeowners group filed a lawsuit against the Porter Ranch project in 1990, after it was unanimously approved by the L.A. City Council. The suit contended that the development would greatly diminish the surrounding open space and was not in line with planning guidelines for the area.
At the time, the group was more concerned about the project’s commercial component than its residential one. The suit sought a 75 percent reduction in the size of the planned shopping center.
Porter Ranch officials dismissed the litigation as the work of a small fringe group. They even suggested that the group might be filing the suit on behalf of existing malls that would face competition from the Porter Ranch retail center.
A Superior Court judge rejected the suit and ruled in favor of the developer and city officials, saying the project was consistent with the general plan for the area.
Eventually, however, what wasn’t accomplished in the courts came about by the unsettled economy, with the result being the scaled-down shopping center that recently opened.
Tom Zeiger, project manager for Porter Ranch Town Center, said the retail project was initially approved for 6 million square feet of retail and office space but was put on hold during a downturn in the economy.
“No one was interested. The economy was slow in California,” Zeiger said. “We had the earthquake in Northridge, and the overall economy did not provide for a commercial project.”
Zeiger said that for several years developers were unable to find anchor-type tenants for the commercial center.
Two stores in the center are now open, the Toys ‘R’ Us and Best Buy. The 130,000-square-foot Wal-Mart and a Sports Chalet are under construction and scheduled to open by the end of summer. Original plans for the commercial zone also included a 10-story office building and a hotel, but that was when the overall project was still at 6 million square feet.
Because the commercial zone was scaled down, the City Council, in approving the project, waived some of the original improvements required as part of the deal. The developer will no longer have to provide some low-income housing, nor complete certain traffic improvements such as extending Rinaldi Street to Devonshire Street.
But a company release said the developer would still go ahead with many improvements and additions, including new on and off ramps from the Simi Valley (118) Freeway, the building of school classrooms and the setting aside of park land. The company contributed about $250,000 for an additional classroom at an elementary school and provided about 64 acres of parkland for community use.
The current Porter Ranch development contains three private recreation areas with four pools, two spas and eight tennis courts, as well as all-purpose courts and picnic facilities. Already completed are three residential projects with home prices ranging from the mid-$300,000 to the mid-$500,000 range.
In a press release, Tony Barton, vice president of Porter Ranch Development Co., said the overall goal was to make the development San Fernando Valley’s premier residential community.
But Prince criticized the design plan for the new residential area as too dense and not offering enough yard and recreation space for new residents. However, he conceded that the homes already built have been selling.
Porter Ranch box:
Project Name: Porter Ranch
Developer: Liberty Building Co. and S & S; Construction Co., a division of Shapell Industries Inc.
Project Description: More than 7,000 homes (3,150 already built); 600,000 square feet of commercial space on 6,400 acres
Start Date: Since 1974, three residential phases have been completed and two more are scheduled to begin this spring
Completion Date: Dependent on market conditions
