Revolt Spreads : Tall Houses on Tiny Lots Raise New Opposition

A revolt against big houses on tiny lots that started two years ago in Woodland Hills spread over the hill into Topanga Canyon on Tuesday.

Los Angeles County officials asked for a review of small-lot development in the canyon, where builders are constructing large homes on tent-sized parcels that were carved out 60 years ago.

County supervisors voted 4 to 0 to ask the Planning Commission to come up with ways to control the development of more than 1,000 lots that at one time had been the sites of weekend cabins.

Similar problems with about 2,000 former cabin sites around the Woodland Hills Country Club led to a moratorium on the development of such lots two years ago by the Los Angeles City Council. The moratorium was extended a second year.

Recently, city officials said they are considering controls for a small-lot subdivision in the Sherman Oaks area.

County planners said they do not know how many such lots exist in Topanga Canyon. However, they said, there are about 3,600 small parcels in the hillsides southwest of the San Fernando Valley.

Building Up

Some of the sites are only 1,000 square feet in size; others are on steep, barely accessible lots, they said.

As land values have skyrocketed, lots once deemed impossible to build on have been acquired by developers constructing houses that are tall, if not wide.

In Topanga Canyon, five such houses have been built on Medley Lane, a short street perched high above Topanga Canyon Boulevard in Topanga’s Fernwood area. Another 45 lots exist, community leaders say.

A motion introduced Tuesday by Supervisor Mike Antonovich suggested that the county set up a “community standards district” that will “ensure that future construction in that area is consistent with the infrastructure and environmental capacities of that area.”

Antonovich said he wants county planners to meet with Topanga Canyon residents to work out the details of such a district so that the Planning Commission can hold hearings within 120 days.

Planner Ron Hoffman said the 1920s-era subdivision lots are legal.

Access for Fire Engines

But when modern-size houses are built on the cabin lots, there often is no room to park, except on the narrow hillside streets. That means that fire engines may not be able to get into the area.

Many Topanga property owners have bought several small adjoining lots and combined them, Hoffman said. “The responsible people recognize you can’t keep the environment that you have there by building intense, urban-sized houses on a small lot on a mountainside,” he said.

Hoffman said there are also so-called “substandard lots” in Calabasas’ Monte Nido area, in Agoura’s Malibu Lake area, in Chatsworth’s Twin Lakes region and in the Newhall area’s Val Verde section.

Barry Glaser, president of the Topanga Town Council, said his group plans to work with county planners to set up new development rules.

“We don’t want the ‘Laurel Canyonization’ of Topanga,” he said.

The Town Council sent former president Jan Moore to San Francisco last week to argue against further construction on Medley Lane’s small lots at a state Coastal Commission meeting.

However, the commission postponed the matter, Moore said.