WOODLAND HILLS—Los Angeles City Councilmember Bob Blumenfield indicated the proposed housing project at the Woodland Hills Country Club has not been killed, despite a ruling by the city that the site qualifies as mountain lion habitat. In an opinion piece published in the Orange County Register on October 4, Blumenfield said the project remains eligible for the city’s normal review process, which includes fire safety and evacuation routes.
Blumenfield noted the developer tried multiple shortcuts to fast-track the 398-unit project without review for fire safety or environmental impacts. The site sits in a very high fire hazard severity zone, near the burn areas of the Palisades and Woolsey Fires. He argued the site does not qualify as transit-oriented development under AB 2011, since it sits nearly a mile from the closest bus stop.
On January 13, 2026, Blumenfield stated on the official city of Los Angeles website the following:
“Because so many of us are extremely, and appropriately worried about the proposal for development at the Woodland Hills Country Club, I am writing to provide an update- even though there are still many more questions than answers. Right now, City Planning has paused the developer’s application to build hundreds of single-family and multi-family homes at the highly sensitive site of the Woodland Hills Country Club (WHCC). While this pause is welcomed news, it is very much a temporary pause.
As you know, there has been a lot of recent attention on new state laws that took away local control over certain land use policies, and we are seeing the unintended consequences of these laws playing out in our West Valley community. This massive housing proposal at the WHCC would have traditionally gone through many steps in order to be approved, including CEQA review and the Council’s Planning and Land Use Committee, which I Chair. Had the proposal been made three months ago before the new State laws were adopted, it would have.
Typically community questions would be discussed at various required community and public meetings. However, with the signing of AB 2243 and AB 893 in October, bills which expanded the definition of what a commercial corridor is, this is not the case anymore as the state made certain types of housing construction ministerial even if the uses along a corridor are not actually commercial uses. That means without public scrutiny or review, making this large development on a single family street a “by-right” project.”
Blumenfield has made it his goal not to stop development on the site, but to balance fire safety and environmental concerns with housing needs. He wrote that developers who abuse state housing laws are “putting profits over the public’s interest.”
In August, the Los Angeles City Planning Department determined the golf course qualifies as wildlife habitat for mountain lions, blocking the developer from using the streamlined approval process under AB 2011. The decision came after neighbors, biological experts, and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy submitted extensive documentation showing the golf course serves as mountain lion habitat.
The developer’s biologist, Matt South, disputed the city’s habitat finding in a July 17 report. Blumenfield said at the time that the developer and property owner were likely to sue over the determination.
By Milan Manesh