Toyon is Neighbor of the Month

He’s been involved at least a little bit in many community projects in recent years. Among other things, he’s a Boy Scout leader, on the board of directors for the Crescenta Valley Arts Council, president of Volunteers Organized in Conserving the Environment (VOICE), a member of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy Advisory Board, member of the former Crescenta Valley Town Council sub-committee Foothill Design Council, an acclaimed landscape design architect, and award winning production designer for television, film and theater.

Fourteenth-generation Californian and longtime La Crescenta resident, Richard Toyon also is a family man. He and wife, Stacy have two sons and a daughter, students at Holy Redeemer School in Montrose, where Stacy works.

Toyon was honored during the Jan. 15 Crescenta Valley Town Council meeting as the January Neighbor of the Month.

The council has in the past given the award sporadically to deserving residents, but plans to present the honor with more continuity, beginning with Toyon’s designation. The council also intends to begin a Business of the Month award in future months, beginning with an already selected business, which will be honored at the Feb. 26 meeting.

Although Toyon said he was honored to receive the Neighbor of the Month award, he accepted it with humility.

“This is my hometown, whatever we do to help our hometown helps everybody,” he said.

Crescenta Valley Town Council President Steve Pierce had high praise for Toyon.

“He’s not into it for anything but for what’s good for the community, that’s what’s special about Rich,” Pierce said, adding, “I’ve known Richard so long it seems like everything he does is just normal stuff for him, but he’s one of those rare jewels in the community that some communities are fortunate enough to have, and we have him.”

One reason Toyon was selected for the honor was for his recent work with former Town Councilmember Sharon Raghavachary to get 18 new London Plane trees planted in specified locations along Foothill Boulevard.

The trees will help complete the Town Council’s Adopt-a-Tree program, which former Councilman Curtis Cleven developed in the past year.

Thanks to the recent grant for which Toyon wrote an application, adoptees will no longer need to pay for the purchase of trees. But people can still sign up to adopt a tree and perform routine maintenance of watering and caring for the trees, Pierce said.

The 18 new trees are expected to be better for local merchants than the crepe myrtle trees along the boulevard, as the new kind of trees were selected to grow to a height that shouldn’t interfere with business signs.

“London Plane trees are very drought tolerant, [grow] above sign height and need very little pruning,” Toyon said, adding that the trees are found in “Paris, London and all the great cities.”

During a previous attempt by a former Crescenta Valley Town Council to create an Adopt-a-Tree program, the county purchased about 50 trees, but many of those trees weren’t cared for properly and few survived. Of those that did survive, three trees were purchased and cared for by Toyon and his family. Those trees are in front of the car wash at Ocean View and Foothill Boulevards and at Harmony Farms, Toyon said.

Toyon also is known for his work, through his environmental conservation group, in recent years to preserve the Verdugo Hills Golf Course and prevent development there. Toyon contends the golf course has the potential for recreational facilities and open space that could benefit the community. The city of Los Angeles Planning Department is expected to next month release an environmental impact statement concerning the property, according to VOICE’s web site.

And, in 2002, Toyon successfully lobbied Congress in Sacramento and Washington, D.C., to officially name Tongva Peak, a prominent peak in the Verdugo Mountains, in honor of the Native Americans of the Los Angeles Basin. Toyon, a member of the Achjachemem nation, also is field representative in public and environmental affairs for the Tongva Tribe. The Tongva Indians also were known as the Gabrielinos, and are recognized for building the San Fernando, San Gabriel and Los Angeles missions.