Development Threatens Chatsworth Outcrops

* It thrills me that rock climbing advocates are “upset” and “dismayed” over some paint and a little hole in some old rock!

You think you’re upset! You’ve got it easy compared to us! We’re fighting a proposed 19-estate home site, the “Eagle’s Nest” (how appropriately named) in the wildlife corridor behind Chatsworth Oak Park.

There are four pages in the draft environmental impact report (available at the Chatsworth Public Library, 21052 Devonshire St.) regarding massive grading, covering and “ripping” the Chatsworth craggy mountains. The amount of rock destruction, not including access roads, would be equivalent to 117 average-size homes of 2,000 square feet.

So what’s the big deal? They are only rocks!

Considering that these rock outcrops--”sculptures,” some call them--are 60 million to 70 million years old, and there is only one other such rock formation like it in North America, it is a big deal! A very big deal.

Such a big deal that the communities of Chatsworth, Los Angeles city, Los Angeles County and Ventura County have aligned to obtain long-term protection for the remaining Chatsworth craggy mountains.

SUMMER NICHOLSON

Chatsworth

Nicholson is president of the Chatsworth Conservation Coalition.