Growth Management

Santa Paula's slow-growth advocates won a legal victory this week when a state appellate court affirmed their effort to put an initiative on the ballot forcing all large development projects to first receive voter approval. Three judges of the 2nd District Court of Appeal issued a ruling Tuesday that Citizens Advocating Responsible Expansion, or We CARE-Santa Paula, properly gathered signatures to get its measure on a ballot.

Actor Johnny Depp sometimes takes a dim view of American politics. But now he's taking an even dimmer view of West Hollywood politicians. The "Pirates of the Caribbean" star is in a legal sword fight with city officials who have authorized a Sunset Strip construction project that he insists would ruin a scenic view from an area of his $5.4-million Hollywood Hills property.

Voters in the financially struggling community of Santa Paula this week narrowly rejected a plan to build hundreds of mansions in Adams Canyon. In June, voters will get their say on another development proposal, for more than 2,100 less-expensive homes in adjacent Fagan Canyon. In Tuesday's balloting, Measure Y, which would have expanded the city's growth boundaries to allow the development, was defeated by a vote of 2,201 to 2,082. About 41% of the city's 10,435 registered voters cast ballots.

VERMILION CLIFFS NATIONAL MONUMENT, Ariz. -- The 3 million acres of federal land in the Arizona Strip have their remote geography to thank for preserving their spectacular red sandstone escarpments, slot canyons, rock art and ruins of ancient pueblos. One of the last places in the Lower 48 to be mapped, the strip, in the northwestern corner of the state, is today bypassed by major highways and mostly devoid of gas stations, hotels and other visitor services.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has vowed to turn Los Angeles into the greenest city in the nation, promising a wave of public investment to create new parks for a graying metropolis. At the same time, he has championed a more vibrant downtown, one transformed into an around-the-clock mecca of cultural and residential life. But the mayor may be forced to choose between these visions, both hallmarks of his plan for the city.

The son of a seamstress and a cook, Chi Mui didn't speak any English when he left Hong Kong for the United States in 1963. At the time, San Gabriel, the city where he would be elected to office 40 years later, was still a mostly sleepy white and Latino suburb. Mui, 53, became the city's first Chinese American mayor last week, the latest symbol of San Gabriel's rise as the new center of the region's Chinese community.

It used to be a place where a middle-class family could own a small house on a large parcel with a horse corral out back and a few chickens and roosters running around the yard. But these days in Sylmar, the human population is going up while the number of horses is dropping. And this has some longtime residents concerned that a way of life in this foothill community on the northeastern edge of the San Fernando Valley is disappearing.

For years, tour organizer Lascelle Tillett has been leading nature lovers to see rare Morelet's crocodiles, stately Jabiru storks and other wonders in this tiny Caribbean nation. So it came as something of a shock when he ferried a small party to a spot near Belize's coral reef two years ago and encountered a floating mob. "There must have been 600 people in the water, and the boats were lined up like cars," said Tillett, director of S&L Travel & Tours.

Ventura County's Board of Supervisors on Tuesday turned down a zoning change intended to stem the spread of "McMansions" into county open space. The change would have allowed only one residence for every 20 acres zoned as open space. Current county policy allows one residence per 10 acres. On a 3-2 vote, supervisors agreed with farmers that Ventura County's $1-billion agricultural industry could be hurt if minimum lot sizes were increased.

The hills north and east of downtown Los Angeles are a mishmash of small homes, narrow streets, hidden valleys and long views. A few have streetlights; others go dark at night, quiet swatches of countryside less than 10 miles from City Hall. Some of the city's last big undeveloped parcels -- places like Flat-Top, Mt. Olympus, Rose Hill, Paradise Hill -- frame the horizon.