VERDUGO HILLS GROUP
CAMPAIGN
The
Crescenta Valley Group meets on the second Thursday of the month (not Aug
or Dec) at 7:30pm at the Sunland-Tujunga Public Library, 7771 Foothill Blvd
(between Vons and LA City offices), Tujunga 91042.
For
more information or to get involved, contact: Fred Dong, Crescenta Valley
Group Chair at 818-545-3878 or John Lajeuness, Crescenta Valley Group Conservation
Chair, at (818) 248-5763.
Saving
these mountains not only means conserving an unspoiled environment and rural
quality of life of the surrounding communities, but safeguarding this beautiful
natural area for future generations to experience and enjoy.
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The Verdugo Mountains are an urban wilderness island in
the middle of Los Angeles County surrounded
by the cities of Los Angeles, Burbank and Glendale. They are only a
15-minute drive from millions of residents of the San Fernando
and Crescenta Valleys. This land is cherished by the local communities,
much of which is still designated as agricultural with many equestrian
properties. This area has retained
a rural atmosphere despite its proximity to urban Los Angeles.
The Verdugo Mountains currently encompass approximately
9,000-acres of wilderness area which ranges from various chaparral,
coastal sage scrub, southern willow scrub, coast live oak |
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woodland & forest ecosystems and many
riparian areas with seasonal waterfalls. One of the few remaining natural regions in
the Los Angeles area that supports abundant native wildlife and habitats,
it also contains several rare and sensitive plant and animal species.
The Verdugos have
been designated by Los Angeles County as SEA (Special Ecological Area) No. 40.
The Verdugo Mountains SEA is characterized as a Class 7 SEA, indicative
of areas that would provide for the preservation of relatively undisturbed examples
of the natural biotic communities in Los Angeles County. This area provides
a link between plant and animal populations found in the Santa Monica and San
Gabriel Mountains. Medium intensity recreation uses are the only compatible
land and resource uses identified.
The Verdugo Mountains and their adjacent wildlands
are under constant threat of development. Recently
approved projects or proposals are shrinking the remaining territory of this
wilderness island. These include housing
developments, condominiums, construction of a landfill expansion, a golf course
in the Big Tujunga Wash, several church complexes and private schools that further
encroach on the remaining wild lands in the Verdugos.
The Crescenta Valley
and Verdugo Hills Groups of the Sierra Club Angeles Chapter often work closely
together since postions of the Verdugos fall into the territory of each grouup.
Joining forces with local grassroots community and conservation groups, we recently
saved 177 acres of pristine oak woodland and chaparral in the northern Verdugos
from development. This success was the
result of a decade long battle to prevent the environmental destruction of this
site and preserve it as public parkland. Formerly
known at the Oakmont View V development, it is now the new Verdugo Mountains
Open Space Preserve that is operated jointly by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy
and the City of Glendale. With the help of Glendale City officials and
state and federal representatives, funding sources were procured for the purchase
of this private property that now belongs to the public as permanent open space
for the benefit of all.
This victory
is encouraging, but the struggle continues to protect the Verdugo Mountains
open space from ongoing relentless destruction.
The Crescenta Valley Group,
in collaboration with other area organizations, is presently focusing on the
next battle: fighting the Canyon Hills housing project, a gated private community
of 280 luxury homes that would bisect the 210-Freeway from La Tuna Canyon to
Sunland-Tujunga. One of the biggest
developments planned for this area, the project site is located on a portion
of 887-acres owned by the Whitebird Development Group aka California Whitebird,
Inc., a Nevada corporation based in Texas. This property represents almost 10% of the remaining open space
in the Verdugo Mountains.
In response to a resolution
submitted jointly by the Crescenta Valley and Verdugo Hills Groups, the Executive Committee of the Angeles Chapter voted
in November 2002 to oppose this project because of the development's irreversible
negative environmental impacts. Some of these include threatening the community's
quality of life, increasing traffic problems, air pollution, light pollution,
visual blight from land scarring and construction, elimination of recreational
areas, habitat loss, loss of hundreds of trees, impact on public services, public
safety, and construction noise for many years.
The LA City Planning
Department issued a Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) for the Canyon
Hills Project in early October 2003 with the public comment period ending on
December 31, 2003. The Crescenta Valley
Group is currently evaluating the DEIR, working with expert consultants, conducting
extensive community outreach & education and preparing a formal response
to the EIR. We are also mobilizing individual
area residents to respond to the DEIR and expect a substantial amount of community
comments on Canyon Hills submitted to the LA City Planning Department and LA
City Council.
Through mailings,
e-mail lists, speaking at community meetings and a petition campaign, we have
organized a large number of volunteers to fight this project and our numbers
keep growing.
Whitebird
is a well-financed, secretive and formidable opponent who has spent years cultivating
relationships with LA City decision makers. In addition to attempting to destroy
irreplaceable and rare habitat, the developer is seeking outrageous concessions
from the City of Los Angeles for amendments and exceptions to the land use laws
that are currently in place.
Whitebird's current
Public Relationship/Lobbying consultant is Consensus Planning Group, a well-connected
collection of former staff members to previous city, county, and state representatives.
This firm specializes in delivering "local grassroots support" to key
decision makers for development projects, such as Canyon Hills, which already
have strong community resistance. Rather
than engaging in genuine dialog with the affected community, Whitebird and their
representatives are conducting a major publicity campaign claiming that Canyon
Hills will benefit the area and be as "environmentally sensitive as humanly
possible". They also are actively working to counteract the effects of pre-existing
opponents, trying to discredit locally respected activists who are mobilizing
community opposition against this development and aggressively lobbying LA City
Hall and the LA City Planning Department to approve their project.
Though our immediate goal
is stopping the Canyon Hills development, our long-term aspiration is to save
all of the remaining wildlands in the Verdugo Mountains as public open space.
We are also supporting federal legislation to establish a "Rim of the
Valley" Corridor, which would more than double the size of the Santa Monica
Mountains National Recreation Area. This
corridor would consists of parts of Santa Monica Mountains, Santa Susanna Mountains,
San Gabriel Mountains, Verdugo Mountains, San Rafael Hills, Arroyo Seco, and
connector areas to the Los Padres and San Bernardino National Forests.