Chick Names 36 Residents to New Advisory Panels : Politics: Committees are seen as a way to reduce land-use disputes in the councilwoman’s southwestern San Fernando Valley district.

Hoping to reduce bitter land-use disputes in her district, Los Angeles City Councilwoman Laura Chick appointed 36 residents Monday to three advisory planning panels, including some who have locked horns with her in the past.

The citizens panels, each composed of 12 residents, will review development projects within Chick’s southwestern San Fernando Valley district and give recommendations to the councilwoman before the projects enter the city’s approval process.

The panels, which will meet monthly, were first proposed by Chick during her election campaign in June as a way to give residents and business leaders a new voice in planning debates.

“These (panels) reflect my philosophy on planning issues,” she said. “When we can assure true community involvement at the front end of the process, there is less suspicion and resistance at the back end.”

Among the 36 appointed panel members are two homeowners who opposed Chick’s backing of a proposed fast-food restaurant in Canoga Park, and a businessman who ran against Chick in the June election.

The panel overseeing projects in Canoga Park and Winnetka will include Marilyn Robinson and Diana Holley, two Winnetka residents who fought against a proposed Jack-in-the-Box at the corner of De Soto Avenue and Vanowen Street in Canoga Park. They said the restaurant would attract gangs and transients. Chick supported the project.

A city planning committee approved the project last month but limited the restaurant’s operating hours.

Robinson said Monday that she hopes that she can use her position on the panel to oppose projects in her neighborhood that she says would increase crime, such as pawnshops and check-cashing businesses.

But she said she was uncertain how much weight the panels’ opinions will carry with Chick. “I don’t know what kind of voice we are going to have in it,” Robinson said.

In a statement, Chick said she may not agree with the panels’ opinions on every matter, but added, “I will always consider their advice very seriously.”

Also appointed to the panel overseeing projects in Canoga Park and Winnetka was Mort Diamond, a Canoga Park business owner who ran for City Council against Chick but threw his support behind her after he failed to make the runoffs.

Robert Gross, president of the Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization, said he was happy with the panel that Chick selected to oversee Woodland Hills because it includes several members of his group.

“I’m very pleased with the whole makeup of it,” he said. “It sounds like she has some good diversity.”

But not everyone was so enthusiastic.

Don Schultz, president of the Van Nuys Homeowners Assn., said he was disappointed in the panel that will review planning in west Van Nuys because it includes no members of his group.

He said he wanted Chick’s panel to include members of his group’s land-use committee. But he said they were precluded from sitting on the panel because they were not residents of Chick’s district.

“I don’t think Laura is doing it fairly when she is eliminating certain people from our land-use committee,” Schultz said, adding that he would prefer separate panels for each of the eight communities in her district.

Other members of the panels include Virginia Rafelson, a West Hills resident and director of a Canoga Park-based adult Spanish education program; Al Denney, head of the South Winnetka Neighborhood Watch, and Beth Nelson, a board member of the Tarzana Property Owners Assn.

In making her selections to the panels, Chick said she asked homeowner, business and other groups for recommendations. The first meetings will be in December.