Wants Homeowner News

Each Sunday morning we are glad to be able to turn to Page 2 of the real estate section and find a small, pleasant stream of sane ideas flowing from the pen of Sam Hall Kaplan, buried in the welter of advertisements and articles promoting burgeoning development.

We wish that The Times would devote more space to the efforts of homeowners’ associations to fend off the bulldozers. Let’s educate our citizens as to how they can work through the maze of city planning procedures and often succeed in achieving a sympathetic hearing and a reasonable compromise.

We, of the Mt. Washington Assn., are striving to preserve the shrinking green spaces of our unique semi-rural community. We consider this hill to be our “megalop-oasis,” and the residents work to keep it that way, not by shouting down those who would fill in our spaces, but by asking for a reasoned approach to intelligent, low-density planning, in keeping with our community general plan.

Many other homeowner groups have become sophisticated in their efforts, and we have all learned through our mistakes. It would be interesting and educational to learn of the work of these caring citizens, who go to endless committee meetings (on good TV nights), who get out newsletters, leaflets and phone calls because they are not members of the American Apathy Party.

We all appreciate Kaplan, but he seems to be your “token advocate” in a development-oriented newspaper. More space, in the form of a column for homeowner reporting, would enhance the real estate section, and present a more balanced point of view.

LUCILLE LEMMON

Los Angeles

Lemmon is president of the Mt. Washington Assn.