Extension of Road Into Hills May Be Dropped

Tarzana residents trying to preserve scenic hillsides above their homes won important victories Thursday deep inside City Hall--and deep inside a Santa Monica Mountains canyon.

In Los Angeles City Hall, members of the city’s Fire Commission said they will consider dropping a requirement that Reseda Boulevard be extended as an emergency route into the mountains.

In Caballero Canyon, a housing tract builder said he will consider changing his grading and landscaping plans for a new subdivision along Reseda Boulevard to minimize his project’s impact on the mountains.

The two breakthroughs brought smiles of relief to residents, some of whom chained themselves to bulldozers this month when developer Harlan Lee tried to begin construction of the boulevard extension through his proposed 178-home luxury tract.

Feared Garbage Dump

Homeowners and members of an environmental group called Earth First! argued that construction of the city-required road would hasten future development of the mountains, perhaps including construction of a new garbage dump south of the San Fernando Valley.

The June 5 protest caused City Councilman Marvin Braude to propose that the road extension requirement be waived. Until Thursday, however, city fire officials had continued to support the roadway as necessary to get firefighters into the mountains and citizens out in case of brush fires.

Fire commissioners agreed to ask the Fire Department to report back in two weeks on alternative emergency routes that would bypass Reseda Boulevard and use nearby Vanalden Avenue instead. One potential route would involve the use of a golf-cart path at the Braemar Country Club.

“I think they’ll be receptive,” said Tarzana resident Joe Martino after meeting with commissioners. Martino, who attended the session with fellow Friends of Caballero Canyon leader Jill Swift, said city Fire Chief Donald Manning told them that “he’s very sympathetic to our position.”

Thursday night, meanwhile, residents met at the construction site with representatives of Harlan Lee’s company to discuss ways of limiting the impact of grading 6 million cubic yards of earth for the housing project.

Hired Biologist

Company partner Michael Dieden said his firm has hired a biologist to help map out the grading and has asked its landscape architect to listen to homeowners’ concerns. Dieden said the effort already has started to pay off.

“The neighbors brought to our attention the fact that a sycamore with a big beehive was in the middle of our grading path,” Dieden said. “I couldn’t save the tree, but I saved the bees.”

Landscape architect Roger Presburger said he will collect seeds and cuttings to relandscape the hillsides with native plants after grading is completed.

Tarzana resident Halli Mason, a California Native Plant Society member, said her group plans to work closely with Presburger and Dieden. Thursday night, she offered a suggestion that could trigger the redesign of part of the tract.

She said a magnificent stand of California black walnut trees can be preserved if the company avoids using a ravine off Caballero Canyon as a fill site for dirt to be bulldozed for the tract.

“No housing pads are planned for that area so no grading is necessary there. It’s a very unique woodland area,” Mason said.