‘Open Zoners’ Step Up Bid to Be Part of West Hills

A group of Canoga Park residents on Monday stepped up its campaign for inclusion in the newly named community of West Hills, vowing to launch a letter-writing campaign to pressure City Councilwoman Joy Picus to extend the boundaries of the community.

“Welcome to Open Zone, California . . . the continuing saga of the West Hills controversy,” said Lil Younger, co-chairman of a group calling itself the West Hills Open Zone Victims, speaking to a standing-room crowd of about 300 homeowners at a Canoga Park elementary school.

The homeowners live in a two-mile strip west of Fallbrook Avenue and east of Platt and Woodlake avenues--an area they call the “open zone” because Picus has told them they may use a West Hills address if they like, but that they will not be within the community signs.

Group members want Picus to officially declare them within the boundaries of the 5-month-old community carved from the hilly western flank of Canoga Park. Another group of about 200 homeowners in nearby Vanowen Estates wants a similar declaration.

Residents think the more glamorous name will distance them from Canoga Park’s aging factories, subdivisions and central business district, adding thousands of dollars to property values.

The controversy began last fall when a group of homeowners launched a petition campaign that persuaded Picus to give the name of West Hills to an area of 4,350 homes in western Canoga Park. City Council members have the power to set boundaries for communities within their district.

At the group’s request, Picus set the boundaries of West Hills at Roscoe Boulevard on the north, Woodlake and Platt avenues and Sherman Way on the east, Victory Boulevard on the south and the Ventura County line on the west.

Residents of nearby parts of Canoga Park promptly began deluging Picus and City Councilman Hal Bernson with requests to join the fledgling community.

No More Petitions

Bernson, whose district includes the West San Fernando Valley, let residents of three Canoga Park neighborhoods in his district join West Hills. Picus told other would-be West Hills residents that she would accept no further petitions, but would let people living west of Fallbrook Avenue call themselves West Hills residents if they wanted.

The West Hills signs, however, would be placed as specified by the West Hills Property Assn., the group that initiated the name-change campaign.

That did not please residents in the “open zone.”

They contended Monday night that Picus at one point agreed to include them within the official boundaries, but then backed off under pressure from the West Hills Property Assn., which wanted to limit the size of its new community.

“The councilwoman giveth and the councilwoman taketh away,” state workers’ compensation Judge Lester Volchok, who lives in the area, said at the Monday night meeting.

Group leaders urged the homeowners to send out three sample letters to Picus and Pacific Bell that were written by Volchok. People in the group want the phone book to list their addresses as in West Hills.

Volchok challenged assertions in a June 15 letter to residents of the area from Picus and real estate broker James R. Gary that property values will not rise or fall solely because of the name change.

But Gary on Monday restated his position.

“Mrs. Picus asked me to confirm her position regarding the name of a community,” he said. “I happen to feel very strongly that many brokers are grossly misstating the situation. They’re implying that prices are going up in West Hills and not Canoga Park. Prices are going up everywhere.”

Some real estate agents say home values in the renamed community have jumped as much as $30,000 in the four months since the name change.