Chalk Hill to Be Bulldozed Into Mesa to Build 663 Apartments

Woodland Hills’ most prominent hillside will be bulldozed beginning this week into a New Mexico-like mesa to make room for a 663-unit luxury apartment project, a developer said.

A section of historic Chalk Hill next to Ventura Boulevard will be graded into terraces for the $70-million development, builder Jay Wilton said.

Nearly a million cubic yards of the powdery soil that gives the hill its name will be removed to a landfill in Calabasas. A dozen three-story buildings resembling Santa Fe-style adobes will be built on the resulting pads, he said.

“We’re leaning toward a Southwestern look,” Wilton said. “The site almost looms over the Ventura Freeway. We want it to look like a village up there.”

The project, which will take 18 months, ends years of speculation about the fate of the 300-foot-high hill.

Long considered the eastern gateway to Woodland Hills, Chalk Hill was first tamed about 75 years ago when the 14-foot-wide Ventura Highway was built along a zigzag route up its side. In the 1920s, a huge sign advertising the area’s pioneering Giraud housing subdivision stood on top of the hill.

Sliced by Freeway

Later, homes were built along parts of the hill. In 1958, Chalk Hill was sliced in half by construction of the Ventura Freeway.

Since then, commercial projects ranging from office buildings to a showcase hilltop restaurant have been discussed for the vacant, 18-acre section of the ridge south of Ventura Boulevard.

Six years ago, plans for four six-story office buildings with about 550,000 square feet were approved by Los Angeles officials.

Those plans were scrapped when Wilton’s GBW Properties acquired the hill last year.

“We felt the last thing Ventura Boulevard needed was another half-million square feet of offices,” Wilton said. “We felt a residential project would have a lower impact and about a third the traffic of a commercial development.”

A spokeswoman for Councilman Marvin Braude, who represents the Woodland Hills area, said the apartments will not be allowed to be higher than the ridge line. The steepest part of the site will be preserved as open space, she said.

Nearby homeowners said they are pleased with the plan.

David Stewart, a 21-year resident of Reaza Place, said the grading will eliminate the threat of a landslide behind his home. “A mud slide came into our backyard and crashed through our house a couple of years ago. We appreciate them taking out that dirt,” he said.

A neighbor, Rita F. Medway, said a previous developer who had planned an office project for the hill “courted us by promising us free memberships in a health club he was going to build. But apartments are probably better for us than offices.”

Gordon Murley, president of Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization, said he is sorry to see the hill fall to development, however.

‘Scenic Beauty of Area’

“That hill was part of the scenic beauty of this area,” Murley said. “I guess the only blessing is there aren’t any oak trees on it.”

Project engineer Tom Stemnock said preliminary grading was done on the hill last year by the previous owner.

Wilton said the initial grading removed about 60,000 cubic yards of earth. Another 900,000 cubic yards will be excavated at a cost of about $5 million, he said.

“We’re reducing the size of the hill greatly,” he acknowledged. “It will be as high when we’re finished, but it will look more like a mesa. We’re taking a lot of bulk out of the hill.”