Woodland Hills Development

* Woodland Hills’ unique topography gives it its character--the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains and the outcroppings that finger into the Valley floor.

But over the last 10 years, developers have been leveling the hills. No one questions the right of property owners to develop their property, but one has to question their right to destroy the physical characteristics that are the chief asset of an area.

A few years ago the hills on the Beechie estate were leveled to create a strange plateau that doesn’t relate to anything around it. Then hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of earth were removed from the hill next to the old Valley Music Theatre to build one of the ugliest and most inappropriate apartment developments in the city.

Now developers want to destroy the physical character of Warner Ridge for a development that is not needed or wanted. Mayor Richard Riordan is enthusiastic about the development. He might as well change the name of Woodland Hills to Woodland Flats and order the assessor to lower the property values of everyone in the area $50,000. This development is another example of how government from afar does not benefit a particular outlying area.

ROMAN CLAUSSEN

Woodland Hills