Tuna Canyon

The Los Angeles City Council on Friday approved a tract of luxury homes for La Tuna Canyon, overturning a Planning Commission decision against the development. Plans for the project call for construction of 26 houses with yards large enough for horses. MPH Development Co. of Granada Hills agreed to donate more than 30 acres of the hillside to the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy for use as parkland.

Los Angeles Councilman Joel Wachs is expected to push for City Council approval of the first tract homes in rural La Tuna Canyon despite the city Planning Commission's denial Thursday of a zoning change necessary for the development. "I believe the councilman will continue to support this to protect and preserve the mountains in the area," said an aide to Wachs, Arline De Sanctis. Wachs could not be reached for comment.

Cheryl Greslie stood defiantly in the middle of La Tuna Canyon Road with her horse and 50 neighbors to demonstrate her anger at construction of a four-lane highway. Despite the protest, the highway was built. Now, some 25 years later, Greslie and a number of neighbors in Sun Valley are bracing against new signs of encroachment on their peaceful surroundings.

Los Angeles City Council members Friday called on Gov. George Deukmejian and the Legislature to provide funds for the purchase of a 1,000-acre site in La Tuna Canyon for the Verdugo Mountains park. The site, south of La Tuna Canyon Road, once was proposed for use as a garbage dump. Its owner, BKK Corp.

A group of longtime, horse-loving La Tuna Canyon residents--some of whom have lived there for more than half a century--are vehemently resisting the plans of a new neighbor to build a commercial equestrian facility on an adjoining 32-acre site. Some of the Sun Valley residents, whose homes don't border the proposal site, maintain that the development would be a positive asset for the residential area. The city zoning board will hold a public hearing on the project Friday in Van Nuys.

About a year ago, Evan Archerd stood fuming before a 35-foot-high mound of rocks, an eyesore that was just a stone's throw from his La Tuna Canyon Road home. On Friday he stood at the same spot facing an even larger pile of coarse sand and gravel. His anger had mellowed into cynical amusement. "This has been going on for four or five years," Archerd said. "Last year, I was really angry, but at a certain point something becomes so absurd that there's nothing else for it to be but funny."

An old horse stands under a weeping willow tree on La Tuna Canyon Road, a few miles east of the Foothill Freeway, chewing on hay from a feeder and looking up occasionally to watch the traffic go by. I've seen the horse before, a dappled gelding that looks too decrepit for anyone to ever ride again, but who seems to possess a kind of wisdom of the ages from having lived a long time. He's seen it all before.

Angered over a series of fatal car accidents on a menacing stretch of road, Los Angeles City Councilman Joel Wachs vowed Tuesday to demand repairs for a section of La Tuna Canyon Road that floods in heavy rains, creating a hazard for motorists. Wachs' call for repairs came in response to a story in The Times on Monday about three wrongful death suits filed against the city on behalf of the families of motorists who have died in accidents on La Tuna Canyon Road in Sun Valley.

A pickup truck struck a horse on La Tuna Canyon Road Thursday night, seriously injuring the animal, which had to be killed. Gypsy, a 29-year-old mare, wandered out of her corral and onto the 9100 block of the busy street about 6:40 p.m., said Sgt. Rod Grahek of the Los Angeles Police Department.

The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday settled the latest of three wrongful death lawsuits resulting from traffic accidents on La Tuna Canyon Road by voting to pay $1.2 million to the family of a crash victim. After the vote, Councilman Joel Wachs, who represents the Sun Valley area where the accidents occurred, demanded that city engineers repair the section of roadway that floods in heavy rains.