Caballero Canyon

The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, a state agency that acquires and preserves parkland, is an unlikely target for a lawsuit by an environmental group. But the Friends of Caballero Canyon have filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court in an attempt to stop the conservancy from turning nine acres of undeveloped land south of Tarzana into a public park. The land lies at the southern tip of Reseda Boulevard in a rugged, chaparral- and sage-covered area known as Reseda Ridge.

As one of the pro bono lawyers for Friends of Caballero Canyon, I write in response to your July 19 news article ("Conservancy Sued Over Park Plan"), which is somewhat misleading and certainly incomplete. The members of Friends are certainly not against the enjoyment of these mountains by everyone. In fact, members of Friends have for years led walks and hikes in Caballero Canyon. The conservancy determined twice before, in 1992 and 1993, that the best use of Reseda Ridge would be to appropriately restore it to be a magnificent entrance to Topanga State Park.

About 60 hikers gathered at the beginning of a trail through Caballero Canyon in Tarzana on Saturday to protest the closure of the popular mountain access route, which was damaged during recent heavy rains. "With the canyon being closed, you can't hike, you can't bike, you can't go birding," said Jean Rosenfeld, spokeswoman for the Friends of Caballero Canyon, which held a news conference at the spot. "We have no substitute for this kind of recreation of body and spirit," she said.

The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, a state agency that acquires and preserves parkland, is an unlikely target for a lawsuit by an environmental group. But the Friends of Caballero Canyon have filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court in an attempt to stop the conservancy from turning nine acres of undeveloped land south of Tarzana into a public park. The land lies at the southern tip of Reseda Boulevard in a rugged, chaparral- and sage-covered area known as Reseda Ridge.

A state parks agency has agreed to accept 440 acres of a scenic canyon in the hills above Tarzana from a developer preparing to build a tract of expensive homes. The gift of land in Caballero Canyon is one condition imposed by the city on the developer of the 178-home Mulholland Park subdivision along a southerly extension of Reseda Boulevard. Another--extending Reseda Boulevard and paving a small stretch of Mulholland Drive--is worrying some neighbors and environmentalists.

I am dismayed by two letters you have published which contain false information and inflammatory charges relative to the meeting of the Encino Hillside Traffic Organization on Aug. 17 where Councilman Marvin Braude was the featured speaker. The letters were from two members of the Friends of the Caballero Canyon. The purpose of the meeting was to address the serious traffic problems on the hillside streets of Encino which pose threats to public safety and to hold Councilman Braude to a long-standing commitment to remedy this problem by a paved connection of Reseda Boulevard to Mulholland Drive and the paving of Mulholland Drive from Reseda Boulevard to Encino Hill Drive.

As one of the pro bono lawyers for Friends of Caballero Canyon, I write in response to your July 19 news article ("Conservancy Sued Over Park Plan"), which is somewhat misleading and certainly incomplete. The members of Friends are certainly not against the enjoyment of these mountains by everyone. In fact, members of Friends have for years led walks and hikes in Caballero Canyon. The conservancy determined twice before, in 1992 and 1993, that the best use of Reseda Ridge would be to appropriately restore it to be a magnificent entrance to Topanga State Park.

The issue at an Encino school Aug. 17 was not a rough confrontation between two affluent communities, but whether the Santa Monica Mountains should be preserved for all people as a national recreation area or should be destroyed by roads, housing pads and county dump sites. Under the pretext of easing congestion on Hayvenhurst Avenue, two Encino homeowners groups advocate extending Reseda Boulevard to Mulholland Drive and paving Mulholland. Developers and the city of Los Angeles support their view.

Tarzana residents trying to preserve scenic hillsides above their homes won important victories Thursday deep inside City Hall--and deep inside a Santa Monica Mountains canyon. In Los Angeles City Hall, members of the city's Fire Commission said they will consider dropping a requirement that Reseda Boulevard be extended as an emergency route into the mountains. In Caballero Canyon, a housing tract builder said he will consider changing his grading and landscaping plans for a new subdivision along Reseda Boulevard to minimize his project's impact on the mountains.

While driving my daughter to what was anticipated to be a town hall public meeting at an elementary school, I found myself expounding to her the virtues of democracy, the Constitution and freedom in America. I told her how she should be thankful for the opportunity to hear her councilman speak about issues that involved our community, and to see her neighbors carrying placards both for and against a road through Caballero Canyon. Maybe it's not important in the scheme of world events, but to those who subscribe to the views of the Friends of Caballero Canyon, the building of a road threatens the immediate destruction of the local canyons and increases the possibility of having a garbage dump in their community.

About 60 hikers gathered at the beginning of a trail through Caballero Canyon in Tarzana on Saturday to protest the closure of the popular mountain access route, which was damaged during recent heavy rains. "With the canyon being closed, you can't hike, you can't bike, you can't go birding," said Jean Rosenfeld, spokeswoman for the Friends of Caballero Canyon, which held a news conference at the spot. "We have no substitute for this kind of recreation of body and spirit," she said.

Paul Edelman, a biologist for the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, was admiring the fortitude of a cactus that had survived the recent freezes in Caballero Canyon, near the southern tip of Reseda Boulevard. Suddenly there was a rustle and a sharp thumping noise in the nearby brush. " That's a deer," he whispered, and he turned quickly to look up a canyon hillside. Sure enough, a large deer was quietly disappearing into the thick brush near the top of the hill. "He's a big one," Edelman said with a smile.

I am dismayed by two letters you have published which contain false information and inflammatory charges relative to the meeting of the Encino Hillside Traffic Organization on Aug. 17 where Councilman Marvin Braude was the featured speaker. The letters were from two members of the Friends of the Caballero Canyon. The purpose of the meeting was to address the serious traffic problems on the hillside streets of Encino which pose threats to public safety and to hold Councilman Braude to a long-standing commitment to remedy this problem by a paved connection of Reseda Boulevard to Mulholland Drive and the paving of Mulholland Drive from Reseda Boulevard to Encino Hill Drive.

While driving my daughter to what was anticipated to be a town hall public meeting at an elementary school, I found myself expounding to her the virtues of democracy, the Constitution and freedom in America. I told her how she should be thankful for the opportunity to hear her councilman speak about issues that involved our community, and to see her neighbors carrying placards both for and against a road through Caballero Canyon. Maybe it's not important in the scheme of world events, but to those who subscribe to the views of the Friends of Caballero Canyon, the building of a road threatens the immediate destruction of the local canyons and increases the possibility of having a garbage dump in their community.

The issue at an Encino school Aug. 17 was not a rough confrontation between two affluent communities, but whether the Santa Monica Mountains should be preserved for all people as a national recreation area or should be destroyed by roads, housing pads and county dump sites. Under the pretext of easing congestion on Hayvenhurst Avenue, two Encino homeowners groups advocate extending Reseda Boulevard to Mulholland Drive and paving Mulholland. Developers and the city of Los Angeles support their view.

Tarzana residents trying to preserve scenic hillsides above their homes won important victories Thursday deep inside City Hall--and deep inside a Santa Monica Mountains canyon. In Los Angeles City Hall, members of the city's Fire Commission said they will consider dropping a requirement that Reseda Boulevard be extended as an emergency route into the mountains. In Caballero Canyon, a housing tract builder said he will consider changing his grading and landscaping plans for a new subdivision along Reseda Boulevard to minimize his project's impact on the mountains.

A state parks agency has agreed to accept 440 acres of a scenic canyon in the hills above Tarzana from a developer preparing to build a tract of expensive homes along a southerly extension of Reseda Boulevard. The gift of land in Caballero Canyon is one condition imposed by the city on the developer of the 178-home Mulholland Park subdivision. Another--extending Reseda and paving a small stretch of Mulholland Drive--is worrying some neighbors and environmentalists. The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy voted earlier this week to accept the parkland gift, which will increase that agency's holdings near the Mulholland crest to more than 800 acres.

It seemed like a scene from the 1960s Monday when two dozen demonstrators marched on a Tarzana construction site to fight a new roadway into a Santa Monica Mountains park, chaining themselves to earthmovers. After a five-hour standoff that ended without arrests or injuries, the developer agreed to temporarily halt his project. And the protesters pledged to negotiate with Los Angeles City officials over the city's requirement that the roadway be built. Fighting Requirement Environmentalists are fighting a city requirement that developer Harlan Lee pave an extension of Reseda Boulevard southward into the Santa Monica Mountains as part of the 178-home luxury subdivision he plans to build.

It seemed like a scene from the 1960s Monday when two dozen demonstrators marched on a Tarzana construction site to fight a new roadway into a Santa Monica Mountains park, chaining themselves to earthmovers. After a five-hour standoff that ended without arrests or injuries, the developer agreed to temporarily halt his project. And the protesters pledged to negotiate with Los Angeles City officials over the city's requirement that the roadway be built. Fighting Requirement Environmentalists are fighting a city requirement that developer Harlan Lee pave an extension of Reseda Boulevard southward into the Santa Monica Mountains as part of the 178-home luxury subdivision he plans to build.

He would appear in the late afternoon, walking south through the hills toward Mulholland Drive--a man in his early 60s in street shoes, his head covered by a terry cloth cap. He carried no water, and Jill Swift of Tarzana, coming down the mountain from her afternoon hikes, was curious and concerned. "Where are you bound for?" Swift finally asked one day. Just walking home, he replied, to the other side of the mountains. His name was Chris Clegg, an Englishman who had competed as a race walker on three continents.