L.A.’s View of Justice Doesn’t Correspond With Residents’

The people of Justice Street say they’re being denied it.

But Los Angeles officials say the scales will eventually tip in favor of a street improvement project that the West Hills residents claim is unfair.

The neighborhood’s trials began early Monday morning when a paving crew hired by the city started tearing up a four-block stretch of Justice Street near Roscoe and Valley Circle boulevards. The city’s plans call for crews from Excel Paving to add curbs, gutters and five street lights, and to straighten the street by eliminating a median that sends traffic through what city engineers say is a dangerous curve.

“This is the kind of project that people in other parts of the city are asking for,” said Stan Sysak, a senior civil engineer for the Los Angeles Bureau of Engineering.

But the 36 residents who live in the area, which faces Orcutt Ranch Horticulture Center--a 40-acre city park with eucalyptus trees, groves of fruit trees and a small creek--say that rather than improving Justice Street, the $99,000 project will detract from its countrified atmosphere and make it possible for traffic to speed through the area instead of slowing for the curve. The residents are so fiercely opposed to the project that they briefly blocked the progress of workers trying to break the pavement Monday morning.

Fears the neighborhood will lose its semi-rural character also prompted longtime resident John Landau, 20, to plan a public reading this week of the “The Lorax,” a poem by children’s writer Dr. Seuss about a fuzzy-headed creature who fights a fruitless battle against the destruction of a make-believe forest. The reading will take place on the edge of the unpaved median as soon as he can find a copy of it, regardless of whether he has an audience, said Landau, a psychology student at Dartmouth College.

City officials denied the project will hurt the neighborhood and said eliminating the divided roadway is essential to prevent the city from being sued in the event of a major accident on the split lanes. The city could not furnish statistics on the number of traffic accidents on Justice Street, but Sysak said maintaining the area as it is would be a “liability risk” for the city. Sgt. Dennis Zine of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Valley Traffic Division could not recall any major accidents on the two-lane road.

City engineers purposely designed the project without sidewalks to preserve the area’s character, Sysak said. Only one tree--a eucalyptus sapling--will be removed, he said.

“It’s a very, very modest change for the neighborhood,” said Councilwoman Joy Picus, who represents the area. She said she “was not thrilled” when she answered the door Sunday morning in her red bathrobe and was presented with a petition from residents asking that she cancel the project.

“I believe the project is a good one and must go forward for reasons of safety and liability,” Picus said, adding that people frequently object at first to street improvements, such as additional lights, only to find that they are pleased with them months later.

It would cost the city at least $20,000 to cancel the project and terminate its contract with the Excel company, as residents have requested, Sysak said.

The project is being funded primarily by the federal government, which pays for 86% of the cost of city projects to improve heavily used streets, said Jim Glasgow, a city engineer in charge of street design and construction in the San Fernando Valley. Justice Street is used by commuters who work at the nearby Rocketdyne plant, Sysak said.

Neighborhood residents say the city should have held public hearings before beginning the three-month project. But Sysak said the project was exempt from environmental review because the city is not adding more traffic lanes.

Meanwhile, the Department of Public Works erected a sign at the western end of Justice Street informing motorists that the project was “Another Improvement for Your Convenience and Safety.”

“The sign is a joke,” protested Mike Coffield, 44, a computer analyst, who fears the changes in the street will spoil the planned sale of his house.