Acton may get delay in standards amendment

The Acton Town Council could get another delay on the proposed amendment to the Acton Community Standards District.

A public hearing is scheduled for Tuesday’s Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors meeting. However, the director of Regional Planning requested that the item be taken off the calendar.

The Acton Town Council sent a four-page letter dated Aug. 4 to Public Works Director Mark Pestrella outlining critical issues such with the proposed update — such as ensuring commercial developments are local serving — that need to be resolved before the community can support the county’s proposed revisions to the Acton Community Standards District.

“Without a clear understanding of how the county will ensure that future development in Acton achieves the ‘local serving’ policies adopted by the County General Plan and AV Area Plan, the ATC cannot support the revised CSD,” the letter said.

The county also received six letters from Acton residents opposed to the proposed amendment.

“My husband and I moved to Acton to enjoy the rural and quiet lifestyle,” a letter from Brittany and Jared Case said. “Additional infrastructure and/or development will attract more people not from the Acton area who may not appreciate or have respect for the Acton lifestyle.”

Acton was one of the first communities in the Antelope Valley to establish a Community Standards District.

Those standards, finalized in late 1995, protect the area’s rural, equestrian and agricultural characteristics, as well as establish development and design standards that call for commercial buildings to be designed in a “Western frontier village, circa 1890s’ style.”

The Town Council has been working on an update to the Acton Community Standards District since 2018.