City Council Amends Ladyface Specific Plan

The Agoura Hills City Council voted unanimously to amend the Ladyface Mountain Specific Plan, solely for the development of an office building east of Ladyface Court.

Developer Vindo Gupta has been given the green light to remove five oak trees and exceed maximum building size in constructing the Gupta Corporate Center at 29760 Agoura Road.

"Typically, the city only addresses development entitlements if an amendment has been appealed," said Associate Planner Valerie Darbouze, "but the city is required to make amendments to the Specific Plan." 

The Ladyface Mountain Specific Plan was adopted by the City Council in 1991 and was intended to allow for limited yet reasonable development along the foothills of Ladyface Mountain on Agoura Road. Unlike other parts of the city, the plan dictates the size and standards for the development of each parcel in the specific area south of the freeway. 

Amending the plan for this case would allow for an increase in permitted office building size, from 8,000 square feet to 12,700 square feet and maximum developable pad, from 0.74 acre to 1 acre, exclusively for the Gupta Corporate Center. 

The Gupta project has been years in the making. Gupta first appealed to the City Council in 2005 to increase the Specific Plan's maximum allowable building area from 8,000 to 17,000 square feet, then again in 2007, to 15,900 square feet. The Council turned down Gupta in both cases. 

In May 2010, the Planning Commission reviewed the project and voted 4-1 (Commissioner Buckley Weber opposed) to approve the Specific Plan Amendment,  as well as a Conditional Use Permit for construction and an Oak Tree Permit to encroach on the protected zone of 10 oak trees and remove five oak trees for the proposed construction. The variance request for reduced front and side yard setbacks was recommended for approval on a 5-0 vote.

In accordance with the California Environmental Quality Act, the project will be designed as economically viable and scaled to reflect its natural setting at the base of Ladyface Mountain. 

"Materials are natural stone, and all the colors are picked to blend with the mountain behind—very compatible with the slopes behind the building," said Neal Scribner, architect of the project, who spoke on behalf of Gupta at a council public hearing Wednesday. "The whole point of the Ladyface ordinance was to expose Ladyface from Agoura Road, and I think we've done that quite successfully."

The only qualms the council voiced were in regards to alternative handicap accessibility from the street up to the building. Scribner proffered two possibilities: an on-site golf cart or switchback ramps from the sidewalk to the building pad. City Engineer Ramiro Adeva was not satisfied.

"I am not going to approve that and rip up the landscaping," Adeva responded. "A golf cart may be the best solution. I do not feel comfortable approving a switchback."

Despite ambivalence from Adeva, the council agreed 4-0 to amend the Specific Plan for the Gupta Corporate Center. Councilmember Denis Weber was absent. 

"I don't take lightly changes to the Ladyface Specific Plan," said councilmember Dan Kuperberg, who opposed amending the Plan in 2005 and 2007, "but I think it is extremely better than anything in the past."