City Council Votes to Block Development in Verdugos

The Los Angeles City Council voted Friday to protect prominent ridgelines in the Verdugo Mountains, making it illegal to build on them.

The scenic preservation plan, pushed by Councilwoman Wendy Greuel, would keep development and grading off the dramatic slopes that rise above the communities of Shadow Hills, Lake View Terrace and Tujunga.

“Christmas comes a little early this year for the scenic northern part of my district,” Greuel said in a statement.

The plan bars development within 60 vertical feet of ridgelines visible from six scenic corridors.

Steve Crouch, a Tujunga resident who pushed for the plan, said he was pleased. The beautiful hills are under constant threat of development, he said, and this plan will “keep hillsides from massive grading.”

The plan was first proposed in the 1980s, and was revived by then-Councilman Joel Wachs in the late 1990s.

The Verdugos are a bumpy, 10-mile strand of sagey hills straddling the eastern San Fernando Valley and overlapping the cities of Los Angeles, Burbank and Glendale.

There have been similar efforts to preserve the part of the mountains within the Glendale city limits.

Last spring, Glendale won a 10-year battle to stop 572 luxury homes on 244 acres of land deep in the Verdugos. After a decade of lawsuits and community opposition, the developers agreed to sell the land to the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and the city of Glendale.