Safety Issue Is Ignored

Amy Pyle’s article regarding the development controversy in Malibou Lake, while ably focusing on my issues of concern regarding the proposed build-out of the Malibou Lake subdivision, does not devote enough attention to the critical issue in dispute. At issue is safety. While issues such as traffic, density and aesthetics are subject to compromise through the political process, safety is not.

Those individuals quoted in the article advocating further development all place their own economic interests against the health and safety of their fellow neighbors. While certain individuals may be willing to accept a higher level of risk in a given community in order to make a quick profit on building an additional home, the community as a whole is placed in danger by the cumulative result of such thinking. Perhaps more disturbing is the fact that many of the individuals who wish to build homes in Malibou Lake will never reside there because they build homes on speculation rather than as a residence.

While Pyle’s article does identify many of the issues regarding the dispute, three points must be made on behalf of the residents of the area. First, the issue of safety has always been paramount in the concerns of the homeowners. Second, the issue of safety is not subject to compromise through the political process. Third, no person should be allowed to jeopardize the safety of other residents by building homes in an area that is already overbuilt. When the county of Los Angeles realizes this fact, we can then work toward a solution of the problem. However, after six months of reviewing the situation, the county was unable to come up with any workable solutions. Certainly, this was not by lack of effort on the county’s behalf.

The county’s inability to identify any resolution of the fire safety issue simply underscores the fact that there is no solution that will allow the development desired by vacant landowners. Until all parties concerned realize that the issue of safety cannot be compromised, the dispute will never be resolved through negotiations. For once, the law is on the side of the ordinary citizens.

RANDY E. BENDEL

Agoura

Bendel is immediate past president of the Malibou Lakeside Homeowners Assn.