Braude Shifts Gears, Opposes Building Road Into Mountains

Pressured by environmentalists who chained themselves to bulldozers in Tarzana, Los Angeles City Councilman Marvin Braude backed away Thursday from supporting an extension of Reseda Boulevard into the Santa Monica Mountains.

Braude told a sometimes-raucous crowd that jammed a meeting hall in Encino that he will help rewrite the city’s master plan to eliminate any future linkup of Reseda Boulevard with an unpaved section of Mulholland Drive along the crest of the Santa Monica Mountains above Tarzana.

Until now, city officials had required developer Harlan Lee to construct the half-mile extension of the boulevard as a condition of approval for a 178-home luxury tract that he plans to build in Caballero Canyon, where Reseda Boulevard now ends.

But the start of Lee’s construction project was halted Monday when 10 protesters jumped in front of bulldozers and chained themselves to the equipment. After protesters sat for five hours on the earthmovers, Braude agreed to hold Thursday’s meeting, and Lee agreed to halt work at the site until then.

Legally Erase Extension

Lee, who sat unnoticed among 250 environmentalists who crowded into the Encino Community Center, said he will begin efforts today to legally erase the road extension both from his and the city’s plans.

To mollify the protesters, Lee pledged to keep the bulldozers idle until next week, after the process has been initiated. After that, earthmoving equipment will be kept away from the southern edge of his 125-acre parcel, where the extension would have been, he said.

“I’ll do everything in my power not to build the road extension,” said Lee, of Marina del Rey.

Braude’s about-face came after more than two hours of acrimonious protests by representatives of several ecological groups and Tarzana-area homeowners.

After Monday’s bulldozer standoff, Braude had continued to express support for extension of the boulevard, saying he viewed it as an important public access route to Topanga State Park and other mountain recreation areas.

If the city did not require Lee to build the road now, taxpayers would have to pay for its construction later, Braude said at the time, promising his continued support for the extension “until I can be shown how you satisfy the needs of the public some other way.”

Braude began Thursday’s meeting by explaining that the Fire Department favors the extension for public safety reasons and that others support it as a park access. He cited his record as a staunch advocate of public parkland in the mountains. But without the extension, “the question is how do you get people up there,” he told the crowd.

“You walk!” interrupted Sue Nelson, president of the Friends of the Santa Monica Mountains’ Parks and Seashore, to loud applause from the crowd.

Environmentalists from the Sierra Club, Earth First! and Friends of Caballero Canyon argued that the boulevard extension would speed private development of the mountains and lead to creation of garbage dumps in Rustic and Sullivan canyons, between Tarzana and Pacific Palisades.

They were clearly skeptical when Braude sought to assure them that landfills will never be constructed in the two canyons.

“We do not want any road going through,” added Suzanne Belcher, a Tarzana homeowner who said she has “taken a crash course in ecology in the last few weeks” as the controversy over the extension has grown.

“We want the grading stopped. Once you’ve seen Caballero Canyon, you don’t want anything to happen to it,” she said, challenging Braude to live up to his image as an environmentalist.

Tempers flared briefly when several environmentalists angrily accused Braude of refusing to let one of Monday’s bulldozer protesters speak. One man rushed to the front of the room and ripped speakers’ sign-up cards from Braude’s hands when the councilman told the crowd that protester Deborah Widel’s card was missing.

Stop or Resume?

When Widel, of Northridge, was finally called to speak, she demanded to know whether the road extension would be stopped or whether construction would resume as planned today.

Braude replied that “we have the power and opportunity” to eliminate the road, but that he intended to “seek the advice and guidance of everyone” in dealing with the issue.

From the crowd, Encino resident Britt Lind interrupted.

“Stop being a politician. Are you for it or against it?” she shouted at Braude. “Answer the question!”

Replied Braude: “I’m naturally opposed to the road.”