Hillside Development

A Los Angeles planning official has recommended disapproval of an emergency measure that would restrict development on Sunland-Tujunga hillsides until the community district plan is rewritten. In a report to the Planning Commission, Hearing Officer Charles Rausch wrote that the interim control ordinance is not necessary because only three subdivision applications had been filed in the last 18 months for hillside areas.

Landowners who live in the ranches above Moorpark are mounting a battle to prevent the city's northern hillsides from being carved up into a luxury housing development. A considerable part of Moorpark city lies in the north, a vast area covered by cactus and sage and populated mainly by avocado growers and horse ranchers. But if Westlake Village developer Paul Bollinger is successful in pushing through his plan, 101 hillside estates will be built.

Hillside development in La Canada Flintridge has been halted for at least 45 days under an emergency ordinance adopted Monday night by the City Council. The council voted 4-0 in favor of the ordinance. Councilman Ed Phelps abstained due to a conflict of interest because his former law firm represented a La Canada Flintridge hillside developer.

To homeowners on Avenida del Sol, a serpentine street in the hills of Studio City, an accident last week in which a 30-ton concrete truck rolled off the edge of the road and onto a house below was frightening but not surprising. "We've been seeing this for a year and a half," resident Chip Worsinger said of the heavy construction traffic on his narrow hillside street.

Sherman Oaks residents Tuesday declared a SigAlert over congestion in their neighborhood. Homeowner Loyd Sigmon, inventor of the SigAlert system that radio stations use to warn of major freeway problems, phoned neighbors to alert them to a new development in a fight over a hillside building plan. Thus summoned, several dozen residents gathered on a drizzly hilltop to hear City Councilman Michael Woo say he has joined their 10-year protest.

Los Angeles County Supervisors, holding what is likely to be the last public hearing on the La Vina housing development, set the stage Thursday for a showdown vote later this month in the bitter, five-year battle over the proposal.

Los Angeles City Councilman Michael Woo's remodeling project at his Silver Lake home fails to include public safety features of a proposed law he has championed for three years. That proposal, being considered by the City Council, calls for tough, costly new construction rules for houses like Woo's that are being remodeled or built in the hills.

A Glendale developer who filed suit after the city rejected his plans to slice off a prominent ridge and subdivide a hillside area in Glenoaks Canyon has temporarily suspended the action to try another approach. Ken Doty said he expects within two weeks to submit new plans for 18 lots on a 30-acre parcel near Sleepy Hollow Place. Doty had first submitted plans seven years ago, but all were rejected despite several revisions.

After two decades of debate and 10 months of study by Glendale homeowners, business leaders and developers, formal hearings began this week to rewrite the city's policy on hillside development. The new policy, expected to be adopted by April, could dramatically curtail the amount and alter the type of building permitted in the remaining undeveloped hillsides.

A decision on the most controversial issue facing Glendale--hillside development--was postponed late Tuesday after City Council members said they had grown weary of debate and developers threatened to derail any action. Council members said they will tackle the issue again at a special meeting next Tuesday, when they hope to finally reach a decision.