Tarzana Ca

Proposed zoning changes for seven of the 57 sub-areas in the Encino-Tarzana Community Plan Update Program were presented to residents this week at a public hearing held by the city's Department of City Planning. The 25 area residents attending Thursday's meeting at Portola Middle School in Tarzana got an overview of the proposed changes by Gary Klein, city planning assistant, as well as a copy of the preliminary change matrix and change map.

A toddler found without a pulse in a backyard spa Saturday was hospitalized in critical condition after being revived by paramedics, officials said. Family members discovered the 18-month-old girl shortly after noon floating in the spa at their Wynne Avenue home, Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Bob Collis said. They pulled her out of the water, called 911 and began cardiopulmonary resuscitation with instructions from a fire dispatcher.

The way Sam Schiffman looks at it, it's never too late to try to make a difference. Schiffman, who admits that he only heard about a storage company's plans to build a 40,000-square-foot storage facility at Ventura Boulevard and Vanalden Avenue last week, has begun a petition drive he hopes will spark community opposition to the project. "I haven't found anyone who is for this proposal. Everyone is against it," said Schiffman, 68, a real estate agent and Tarzana resident for 31 years.

Mountain lions are often spotted in hilly residential neighborhoods throughout the San Fernando Valley, so Judy Mitchell wasn't exactly surprised when she saw one walking along her street Thursday evening. Neither were her neighbors nor animal control officers, who say it's a common occurrence in the local mountains, where the animals have lived long before houses were constructed.

Two Van Gogh replicas grace the kindergarten doors. Modern artist Wayne Thiebaud's "California Cakes" will soon welcome students to lunch at the cafeteria entryway. And John Singer Sargent's "Carnation, Lilly, Lilly, Rose," a depiction of two young girls in a garden, adorns the library portal. Dubbed by organizers "the school that is a work of art," Wilbur Avenue Elementary is fast becoming the most decorated school in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

The man whose 72-year-old mother was left behind in a crumpled car towed to a police impound lot said Wednesday that he remembers little about the car crash that killed her and put him in a hospital intensive care unit. From his hospital bed, Steven Williams, 48, of Paso Robles, Calif., said he has epilepsy and believes that he had a seizure in the moments before he slammed the car into a Tarzana strip mall Saturday morning.

A new child care center at the Tarzana Recreation Center moved a step closer to reality Tuesday as the Los Angeles City Council agreed to a contract with the county that will provide start-up money for the project. The $1.3-million Tarzana center will be one of three child care facilities citywide to split a $1.05-million Proposition A grant under the agreement approved Tuesday. The other two facilities will be located in Palms and Echo Park.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Malcolm Mackey ruled Tuesday that the Frisky Kitty strip club in Tarzana can no longer allow nude dancing because the club is within 500 feet of an apartment building, a violation of city law. Roger Jon Diamond, an attorney for the club, said the Frisky Kitty will revert to a bikini club that serves alcohol, as it was before 2000. In its present incarnation, the club is prohibited from serving alcohol.

Seven-year-old Michael Gonzalez knew he wasn't supposed to bring toys to school. That's why the second-grader at Tarzana Elementary School made sure to tuck the tiny toy gun attached to a key chain deep into his sweatshirt pocket. But when the inch-long toy--about the size of a pink school eraser--fell from a hole in his pocket and his classmates told a playground staffer, Michael knew he was going to get into trouble. Scared, Michael wrapped the toy in a piece of aluminum foil to hide it.

Construction crews began uprooting a stand of stately old trees Wednesday on land once owned by Edgar Rice Burroughs after Los Angeles city officials determined there was nothing they could do to stop them. But in response to complaints from neighbors, Manhattan Holding Co. of Long Beach agreed to preserve 42 trees, of about 290 total. The company plans to build a 30-home subdivision on the 18-acre site on Tarzana Drive. Residents who live near the property expressed dismay.