The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 5

I I I IM1S 17 iuiusday. B3 Wley News San Fernando, Santa Clarita Concjo, Simi and Antelope Valleys County Moves to Curb Growth in Santa Clarita Development: The Department of Regional Planning proposal would make deep cuts in developers' plans. Trial Opens in Extortion Mail Scheme Justice: Prosecutors say they will prove two men sent threatening letters to 265 Antelope Valley residents even though the evidence is circumstantial. 68 of its currently available water supply in 1987 and could use as much as 96 by 2010. That report, tallying the cost of growth in the region for the first time, also predicted that the Santa Clarita Valley would need at least $912 million in capital improvementsfrom roads to libraries to parks over the next 20 years.

The new plan would allow up to 10,100 new nouses, apartments and condominiums to be built in the valley in the next 20 years. That would be on top of 48,000 dwelling units currently in the valley, another 19,000 approved but not yet built, and a further 18,000 that would be allowed under current zoning. The plan released Monday will determine the fate of 43 development proposals that would exceed the 10,100 units it provides for. Those proposals call for 38,000 houses, apartments and condominiumsenough units to fill a city the size of Inglewood. The proposals were put forth by some of the most influential developers in the Santa Clarita Valley and called for drastic changes in the use of land.

One proposal, for example, called for squeezing 1,215 units onto 43 acres currently zoned for 32 units. After county officials complete the new Santa Clarita Valley general plan, they will see how the 43 proposals fit the new planning document, Edwards said. Some of those projects will have to be rejected or scaled down to meet the population ceiling of the new general plan. A map shows much of the growth allowed by the plan would be in northern Valencia, an area being developed by the Newhall Land and Farming Co. By SEBASTIAN ROTELLA TIMES STAFF WRITER The trial of two former aerospace technicians accused of sending hundreds of "pay-or-die" letters to prominent Antelope Valley residents opened Monday, with a prosecutor saying he can convict the suspects despite a case based on circumstantial evidence.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Stephen L. Cooley acknowledged in San Fernando Superior Court that no single witness or piece of evidence conclusively links Richard Faroni, 27, and Roman (Moose) Makuch, 28, to the mailing of extortion letters to about 265 prominent business people, doctors, lawyers and community leaders in the Antelope Valley in November, 1988. But Cooley said the evidence shows Makuch and Faroni had the capacity, equipment and motive to collect information about the people and carry out a "bizarre but feasible extortion scheme" in which hundreds of thousands of dollars were demanded, but never collected.

"We have a wide variety of circumstantial evidence," Cooley said in an interview. "No one piece provides a critical link. But the weight of the evidence shows they were involved." Makuch and Faroni pleaded innocent to charges of conspiracy and attempted extortion and opted for a non-jury trial before Superior Court Judge Ronald S. Coen. They have spent more than a year in custody and face up to eight years in prison if convicted.

The letters threatened recipients Please see LETTERS, B4 BOB CAREY Los Angeles Times Sticking it out Palm trees waiting to be planted at Burbank's Gateway Center make an unseasonable last stand in the middle of a Glendale Christmas tree lot on Burbank Boulevard. City Addresses Post Office Parking Ticket By STEVE PADILLA TIMES STAFF WRITER Los Angeles County planners, saying there are limits to growth even in the burgeoning Santa Clarita Valley, released a development plan Monday that would cap growth in the valley, rejecting close to 28,000 dwelling units proposed by developers. The plan still must be approved by the Regional Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors and probably will be revised during several public hearings on the document. The first hearing before the Regional Planning Commission is scheduled Jan. 4.

The plan released Monday by the Department of Regional Planning would revise the valley's general plan, which acts as a broad blueprint for growth, designating land for commercial, industrial and residential development in a region. The plan upholds a county policy allowing the present 151,000 population of the valley the county's fastest-growing region for the past four years to swell to 270,000 by 2010. Some developers have lobbied the county to ease that population ceiling to allow more building. John Edwards, an administrator in the Department of Regional Planning, said the new plan recognizes that growth can continue only if there are roads, water and other services to support it. "We're approaching the limits of the infrastructure," Edwards said.

Edwards cited a recent county report that said a limited water supply could slow growth in the valley. The report said the valley used Problem BOB CAREY Los Angeles Times In addition, Councilman John Ferraro wrote to the city Department of Transportation, pointing out that the post office maintains the city-owned lot for free and has installed lights there. "It appears to me that two governmental agencies must Please see TICKETS, B6 of 5,000 square feet each. In Braude's proposal, the smallest lot allowed would be 15,000 square feet. Cindy Miscikowski, Braude's chief deputy, said the councilman proposed the plan after hearing numerous complaints about developers and homeowners splitting lots.

Planning Department examiner Charles Rausche, who officiated at the hearing, said he would make a recommendation to the Planning Commission in about a month as to whether the rezoning would be implemented. Final approval will be considered by the City Council. f- 'WLm I .1 Decentralized School District Plan Praised By SAM ENRIQUEZ TIMES STAFF WRITER Allowing parents to choose their children's schools has improved academic performance and reduced the number of dropouts, a Northern California school superintendent told a hearing Monday into the possibility of breaking up the giant Los Angeles Unified School District. Walter L. Marks, superintendent of the Richmond district, the only one in California to allow parents free choice among schools offering different educational programs, spoke to a hearing in Studio City organized by Assemblywoman Marian La Follette (R-North-ridge).

It was the fourth and final hearing in the series sponsored by La Follette, who has long advocated breaking up the Los Angeles district and forming separate districts, including a San Fernando Valley district. Marks said the free-choice system worked well in his see SCHOOLS, B6 ByTRACEY KAPLAN TIMES STAFF WRITER Not everybody gets to pitch $1,105 worth of parking tickets into the trash without fear of penalty but Uncle Sam does. A Los Angeles transportation official said Monday that the U.S. Postal Service does not have to pay 85 tickets issued to mail carriers who parked postal trucks overnight in a city-owned lot in North Hollywood without feeding the parking meters. The tickets were issued during the past three weeks after parking administrators warned postal officials to begin paying $1 per vehicle for parking overnight or to stop using the lot in the 11300 block of Chandler Boulevard.

But the warning was a mistake, said Bob Yates, the city's parking administrator. Federally owned vehicles are exempt from city parking regulations, he said. "It was a matter of the right hand not really knowing what the left was doing," Yates said Monday. Mail carriers have used the 48 -space lot to park up to 27 government vehicles every night since the early 1970s because there is no other place to park overnight in the neighborhood, said Bill Guest, manager of the Chandler Station Post Office, which adjoins the lot. Prior to 1 -ft t.

Mi t' i 111 1 i i HUM Vim ATION I (fo www mi iTliN, PARKING VIOLATION Crty 5IIJM IJHtptiQtf i i 1 BOB CAREY Los Angeles Tlmea The post office will not have to pay 85 parking tickets issued to postal vehicles. Among those ticketed was Acting Postmaster Dale J.E. Herbert. that, postal carriers used their own vehicles and took them home at night, he said. Before that, they used bicycles to deliver the mail, Guest said.

On Nov. 8, postal officials got a letter from the city telling them to stop using the lot for free by Nov. 13, said Dale J.E. Herbert, nue on the east, was needed because neighborhoods were becoming too crowded. They said the split lots were increasing the density of the area and ruining the single-family atmosphere of the community.

"Encino already has too many lot splits, and privacy is so rare these days that something like this is really necessary," said B.J. Peaker, a member of the Homeowners of Encino group. She said the area was being covered by "postage-stamp parcels." Another resident, Steve Salkin, said he lived next to a split lot with a pair of two-story homes. He said supervisor happened to notice the postal vehicles in the lot one afternoon and was worried that residents and shoppers in the area were being deprived of parking spots. But Yates said more than 600 area residents have signed petitions supporting the post office's use of the lot.

Encino Residents Argue Over Proposal to Limit Subdivision of Lots acting postmaster of the Van Nuys division, which includes North Hollywood. "It's the worst time of year with the holiday mail, and then we had parking tickets to worry about," Herbert said. Yates said he signed the letter because a parking enforcement both homes had tennis courts and a 12-foot-high chain link that comes right up to his property line. "Right now, these homes look right down into my front yard," Salkin said. "The lot on the other side of me was just sold and I'm afraid the same thing is going to happen.

Then I will be imprisoned." However, other residents said the proposal was unfair and unnecessary. Marvin Leon said the re-zoning would decrease tax revenues to the city, and that the proposed zoning was incompatible with the burgeoning development on Ventura Boulevard. District Attorney Won't Prosecute 'Sex Church' Case By STEVE PADILLA TIMES STAFF WRITER Los Angeles County prosecutors declined to file felony pandering charges Monday against a Canyon Country couple who claim to be the high priest and priestess of an ancient Egyptian sex church. Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the district attorney, said there was insufficient evidence to prosecute Will and Mary Ellen Tracy, who were arrested by Los Angeles vice officers Nov. 14 at a tiny one-bedroom house in Silver Lake after a female undercover officer asked the Tracys how she could become a priestess in the Church of the Most High Goddess.

Please see EVIDENCE, I "No one should have the right to tell me I can't subdivide my property," said Benita Satzman, who lives in a home that sits on a three-quarter-acre lot. "I have a large enough parcel that I won't bother anyone if I wanted to build something else on my property." The proposal, initiated by Los Angeles City Councilman Marvin Braudc, who represents the area, would change the zoning from single-family dwelling to residential estate. Under the current zoning, a property owner with a piece of land could subdivide the property into six lots By GREG BRAXTON TIMKS STAFF WRITER Kncino homeowners clashed Monday during a public hearing on a proposal that would reduce the number of lots that can be subdivided to accommodate several homes on one parcel. Residents attending the hearing at the Van Nuys Woman's Club said a Los Angeles City Council-sponsored initiative to downzonc a onc-squarc-mile residential area of Kncino, bounded by Ventura Boulevard on the south, Libbit Avenue on the west, Magnolia Boulevard on the north and Dcnsmore Ave.