Group Vows to Harass Picus Over West Hills

A group of Canoga Park residents Wednesday night continued its battle to compel City Councilwoman Joy Picus to allow its neighborhood to become a part of West Hills, vowing to clog telephone lines at her office and to register with the state as a homeowners association.

“Frankly we grow weary of this insufficient response to our identity question,” said Lil Younger, head of a group calling itself the West Hills Open Zone Victims, speaking to about 500 people gathered at a Woodland Hills junior high school.

Younger said Picus has refused to talk to the group. “We have not been able to get through to her,” Younger said. “She will not acknowledge us, period.”

Declined to Show

Picus also declined to appear at a Neighborhood Watch meeting Monday night and said later that she did not want to face irate Canoga Park residents seeking admission to West Hills. She said she was willing to talk about trees, sewers and potholes--but was afraid that the meeting would deteriorate and not serve the purpose of Neighborhood Watch.

The open zone organization, comprising homeowners in a two-mile strip west of Fallbrook Avenue and east of Platt and Woodlake avenues, is fighting to force Picus to extend the boundaries of West Hills to include their neighborhood.

The group contends that Picus agreed in February to include their neighborhood in West Hills but later backed down under pressure from the Canoga Park Chamber of Commerce and the original West Hills founders.

Give and Take

“The councilwoman giveth, and the councilwoman taketh away,” Younger said.

West Hills was formed after a group of affluent homeowners in January launched a petition campaign persuading Picus to give the name West Hills to an area including 4,350 homes in western Canoga Park.

The homeowners hoped the more glamorous name would distance their predominantly hillside community from Canoga Park’s aging factories, subdivisions and central business district, thereby raising housing prices and lowering insurance rates.

Workers’ Compensation Judge Lester B. Volcholk, a resident of the so-called open zone, said the name change will have a devastating effect on Canoga Park property values.

The suggestion to pester Picus with telephone calls came from an audience member and was greeted with applause by Younger, Volcholk and homeowners attending the meeting. After apparently doing some calculations in his head, Volcholk said it would take 192 people each making a phone call every other day to clog Picus’ district office with a steady stream of calls. Several audience members quickly raised their hands, volunteering to make calls.

Hands Shoot Up

Younger later asked for volunteers to put up $25 to start a neighborhood association registered with the state as a lobbying group. Hands shot up all over the room, and a man rushed up to the podium with $25.

The group has collected 2,000 signatures on a petition seeking inclusion in West Hills, and leaders hope to gather at least 3,500 more signatures, Younger said.

She said the group would try to send the petition to the City Council rather than to Picus.

“Picus told me she would throw them in the trash,” Younger said, recollecting a conversation she had with the councilwoman several months ago. Picus has publicly stated that she will accept no more petitions from homeowners seeking to become part of West Hills.

At the request of the West Hills homeowners earlier this year, 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.

Soon after, City Councilman Hal Bernson granted permission to residents of three Canoga Park neighborhoods in his district to join West Hills.

The Open Zone group contends that Picus later extended the boundaries east to Fallbrook Avenue, but Picus has said she never officially took the action. She said the homeowners misunderstood her position.

None of the more than 26 elected officials invited to the meeting by Younger showed up. Four, including Mayor Tom Bradley and state Sen. Gary K. Hart (D-Santa Barbara), sent representatives.