SigAlert : Neighbors are fighting a hillside development that they say would create traffic, wreck their view and channel mud into their homes.

Sherman Oaks residents Tuesday declared a SigAlert over congestion in their neighborhood.

Homeowner Loyd Sigmon, inventor of the SigAlert system that radio stations use to warn of major freeway problems, phoned neighbors to alert them to a new development in a fight over a hillside building plan.

Thus summoned, several dozen residents gathered on a drizzly hilltop to hear City Councilman Michael Woo say he has joined their 10-year protest.

Residents say the proposed 52-acre subdivision would lop off the tops of two ridges and wipe out a canyon half a mile south of Ventura Boulevard.

They contend that the project would funnel heavy traffic up two narrow residential streets and send storm runoff cascading down them, into their houses.

“It’s very clear it’s a bad idea . . . an irresponsibly scaled project,” Woo said. “I will use all resources available to stop it.”

The resources are limited, opponents admit.

The subdivision’s tentative tract map was approved by city officials in 1982. The approval expires in November. If the landowner, George Bergmann, wins final approval before then, he can build 31 homes.

Woo, saying he will ask the city Planning Commission to downzone the land and halve the scope of the building, remarked: “I feel very strongly this is a disaster waiting to happen.”

City law, amended since 1982, would now allow Bergmann to build only three houses, said Eric Roth, an aide to Woo. Roth showed a photograph depicting the 1 million cubic yards of earth-moving planned by Bergmann.

“The developer has told us he’s bought the property and the plans and is going for it,” said resident Veronica Chambers. “We didn’t know anything was going on until we saw a whole new group of surveyors on the hill.”

Neighbor Paula Terman said residents have seen three homes inundated by mud, and fear that more will be in jeopardy if the huge grading project is allowed.

“There’s no storm drain down Longridge Avenue,” said one homeowner, Dr. Richard Gatti. “Longridge is the storm drain.”

Woo said he has met with Bergmann, who bought the land at a bankruptcy auction 16 months ago for $2.2 million. But he “has shown no interest to compromise,” Woo said.

Bergmann, who was not invited to the hilltop session, disagreed.

“I’d hope there’s a reasonable compromise and understanding that will mutually benefit the councilman and the homeowners,” he said later.

He said he plans to construct runoff catch basins and a 54-inch storm drain down Longridge.

“The very thing they say will happen is happening now,” Bergmann said of the runoff problem. “Development will alleviate it.”

Bergmann said he thinks the 1982 tract approval locks the city into the 31-home project. A similar amount of grading would be required “whether 5, 10, 15 or 31 are built,” he said. However, Woo said, Bergmann does not have a vested right to proceed because he has not met requirements that call for such things as a detailed geological report.