City Panel Backs Bill to Block Boulevard : Reseda extension: A council committee asks the governor to sign the legislation, pleasing environmentalists.

Rejecting the advice of two city agencies, a Los Angeles City Council panel voted Tuesday to ask Gov. Pete Wilson to sign legislation blocking the extension of Reseda Boulevard to Mulholland Drive.

The 2-1 vote by the council’s Inter-Governmental Relations Committee drew polite cheers in a hearing room packed with environmentalists and homeowner activists who endorse the legislation by Assemblyman Terry Friedman, D-Los Angeles.

Developer Harlan Lee, who is building 178 luxury homes past the present southern terminus of Reseda high in the Santa Monica Mountains, is required to extend the road all the way to Mulholland as a condition of his building permit. The City Council imposed that requirement on Lee’s project a decade ago at the urging of the Fire Department to provide emergency access to the development from two directions.

But now environmentalists fear that extending Reseda south through Topanga State Park to reach Mulholland would require grading of the area and bring city traffic to the park. Responding to those concerns, which several homeowner groups share, Friedman’s bill would block the extension at the park’s boundary, before it reaches Mulholland.

Councilman Marvin Braude, arguing for the bill, said preserving the park should take precedence over other policy considerations, including fire protection. The full council will take up the committee’s recommendation next week. Wilson has until Oct. 13 to decide whether to veto the Friedman bill.

Assistant Los Angeles Fire Chief Dal Howard sternly warned the committee that not extending the road would expose more than 300 homes in two pending subdivisions along Reseda to greater risk in the event of a brush fire in the rugged hills because there would be only one route to reach them.

The city fire code requires that housing projects in fire-prone areas be accessible from two directions.

Recalling a 1978 fire in Mandeville Canyon that destroyed 18 homes and a church and caused more than $10 million worth of damage, Howard said fire crews going up the canyon had “to compete with the residents trying to evacuate” the area in the opposite direction.

Tom Swire, a city planner, said the Department of Transportation also opposes the legislation because it would block a potential escape valve for traffic that uses Encino streets as shortcuts from the west San Fernando Valley to the southbound San Diego Freeway. For that reason, the Encino Property-Owners Assn. also opposes the Friedman bill.

In a related development Tuesday, Braude asked the council to limit access to those Encino streets affected by that traffic. That measure is set to be heard by the full council Friday.