Tarzana Trees

Re “Reprieve Won for 290 Tarzana Trees,” Oct. 14.

My husband and I have lived in Tarzana for more than 15 years and greatly appreciated the timely reporting by Karima Haynes concerning a valuable community asset, the last remaining vestige of the Edgar Rice Burroughs estate.

We are part of a small group of homeowners who have been monitoring this situation since the property was divided in 1993. After a public hearing and a small community meeting with the developers, facilitated by our former councilman, Marvin Braude, we were assured that only some of the trees would be lost, and every effort would be made to save as many trees as possible.

Both the developer and our councilman’s office promised that everyone on the sign-up sheet would be kept up to date on the development. Unfortunately, that was not to be.

In an almost unbelievable failure of the system, the Los Angeles city Planning Department kept no one up to date on the development, including our Councilwoman’s office. On Oct. 11, with less than 48 hours left to act, the Tarzana Property Owners Assn. learned for the first time, together with the rest of our community, that all 290 trees on the property were to be cut down.

Fast actions by the community and by our councilwoman, Cindy Miscikowski, have resulted in a brief moratorium. As a result of this community action, perhaps a handful of trees may be saved. But because of the failure of the system and its general lack of concern for individual communities, Tarzana will have lost a significant piece of its history. A stand of 290 trees, many of them planted in the early part of the century by Harrison Gray Otis, will be lost forever because someone in the Planning Department did not think they were important, and someone in the Department of Animal Regulation did not think their loss would impact our environment.

The recent charter reform may help others in the future, with local planning meetings, hearings and the availability of documentation on projects, without having to travel downtown. Unfortunately, it is of little help to those of us who have spent so much time on this issue, to be faced with such a dismal outcome.

SUSANNE BELCHER

Tarzana