Sunland Ca

At the northern tip of the Crescenta Valley between the San Gabriel and Verdugo mountains, communities still take pride in living close to the land. An annual highlight is the Sunland-Tujunga Watermelon Festival, which starts Friday. Now in its 47th year, the watermelon fest remains a throwback to the farming life. "The best part of the story," however, according to Marynance Schellenbach, secretary of the local Lions Club that organizes the festival, is the event's origin.

City Councilwoman Wendy Greuel said Monday she intended to tighten the city's law to combat "mansionization" in Sunland-Tujunga by requiring builders to count the square footage of attic space in their calculations of allowable size. The city requires that the maximum size of new homes in the area be based on lot size. Greuel said that one homeowner got around that by not counting an attic in the square footage and later converting the attic into a room.

Sunland-Tujunga, long known as Los Angeles' rural outpost of craggy canyons, secluded houses, horse trails and a onetime motorcycle gang hide-out, is in the midst of an identity crisis: Build a Home Depot or shop at a mom-and-pop hardware store? Hilltop McMansions or open space? Support a revitalized main street or promote more tract home developments?

Sunland preservationists won a key victory Friday in their drive to prevent a Home Depot from moving into their canyon enclave when a city official ordered the company to halt its almost-finished conversion of a former K-Mart store.

Planning commissioners Thursday canceled a hearing on a proposed Home Depot in Sunland after more than 400 people jammed a Van Nuys hearing room and blocked exits and aisles. The North Valley Area Planning Commission had been scheduled to determine whether the company could resume work on converting a former Kmart into a Home Depot, or had to undergo a lengthy environmental review. Commissioners set a new hearing for July 19 and promised larger facilities.

Home Depot won a round Thursday night in its battle to expand deeper into the San Fernando Valley, securing permission to open in Sunland after a meeting that featured angry exchanges about race, immigration and jobs. At a raucous seven-hour hearing attended by more than 600 people, the North Valley Area Planning Commission voted 3 to 2, shortly after 11 p.m., to declare Home Depot's building permits valid.

The Los Angeles City Council delivered a setback Tuesday to Home Depot, voting to take up the hardware giant's hotly contested proposal to open a store in the Sunland-Tujunga section of the San Fernando Valley. Despite lawsuit threats from Home Depot's lobbying team, the council agreed to review the North Valley Area Planning Commission's July 19 decision to approve a store on Foothill Boulevard.

Forget the talk about traffic, zoning and even day laborers. At Los Angeles City Hall, the fight over a new Home Depot may boil down to a single question: How many lobbyists will it take to open one hardware store in the San Fernando Valley? Home Depot's push to expand into Sunland-Tujunga might seem like the most local of controversies, one pitting a retail chain against angry neighbors worried about blight and congested streets.

The Los Angeles City Council dealt a final blow Wednesday to Home Depot's high-stakes bid to secure an over-the-counter permit for a new store in Sunland-Tujunga, disregarding a lobbying blitz waged by the company over the last two weeks. The council voted 12 to 1 to require Home Depot's project to go through a more extensive environmental review -- a move that doesn't halt the project but will require months of additional work.

Hardware giant Home Depot filed a lawsuit Friday against the city of Los Angeles, saying Councilwoman Wendy Greuel improperly worked with her constituents to block the chain from opening a store in Sunland-Tujunga. Home Depot's complaint, filed by the law firm of Latham & Watkins, accuses Greuel of handling the project in a biased manner by voting to require an environmental review months after she had helped neighborhood groups challenge the project's original building permit.