Overnight Grading Angers Neighbors

A 16-year campaign to limit growth in Woodland Hills took an urgent turn Friday as homeowners dueled with a builder’s bulldozers for control of the community’s last undeveloped hilltop.

Residents demanded that Los Angeles city officials immediately halt earthmoving along a 39-acre ridge west of Topanga Canyon Boulevard until a court order can be sought to permanently block a proposed 39-home subdivision.

Homeowners charged that a row of trees on the ridge-top 1 mile south of the Ventura Freeway was hastily bulldozed Thursday night in a flurry of grading that sent large rocks rolling into nearby streets and prompted numerous complaints to police.

Construction workers continued working feverishly on Friday. Homeowners charged that the workers were rushing the project along so that they can claim in court that they have a “vested right” to finish it.

The project’s developer said trespassers, not workers, were responsible for the rocks, however. He said the work crews were hurrying because they want to beat next winter’s rainy season, not a court deadline.

City officials said late Friday that they were investigating the homeowners’ accusations. They ordered a halt to further tree removals--but refused, for now, to order the bulldozing stopped.

Angry homeowners said they were gearing up for a repeat of a 1972 court fight in which they thwarted a 123-house tract proposed for the ridge. That battle went to the state Supreme Court before a settlement was reached in 1980.

As part of the settlement, the then-owner of a tree-studded ridge dropped plans for 123 homes. He promised that any future project would comply with tougher development controls then being considered by the city.

For their part, homeowners pledged not to oppose any future construction plan that met the restrictions spelled out in the city’s Woodland Hills-Canoga Park-Winnetka district plan.

Since 1980, the ridge has changed hands four times. The city, meantime, has modified its development policies affecting the ridge three times.

Homeowners say they were shocked when they noticed bulldozers at work on the ridge several months ago. The property’s newest owner explained that pads were being prepared for 39 luxury homes.

That sent homeowners running for copies of the city’s current master plan. That document showed that zoning approved for the ridge in 1984 set a maximum density of one home for every 2 acres--allowing 20 homes, not 39.

Furthermore, a year-old slope density formula written into the city’s zoning ordinance apparently slapped further controls on the steep ridge. By one city official’s calculation, development on the ridge could be restricted to only two homes.

“State law says all development shall comply with the district plan, and the district plan designates this as an endangered ridgeline,” said Jayne Hazard, a homeowner who helped lead the 1972 fight and negotiate the 1980 settlement.

Because of Hazard’s tenacity, city officials and Woodland Hills residents dubbed the tree-studded ridge “Hazard Hill”--a name that has stuck.

Hazard and her neighbors have turned to the lawyer who took the 1972 fight all the way to the Supreme Court for help with their new fight.

Attorney Antonio Cosby-Rossmann, who now practices in San Francisco, demanded that City Councilman Marvin Braude order a halt to the grading and require Woodland Hills builder Frank Thompson to “restore the ridgeline” to its original condition.

This week, Braude asked City Atty. James K. Hahn to determine whether the city can order Thompson to do just that.

“Under the current plan, maybe as few as two homes can be built,” said Cindy Miscikowski, Braude’s chief aide. “The slope-density ordinance says the steeper the land, the lower the density.”

Thompson, a builder since 1950 who is former president and “builder of the year” of Los Angeles’ influential Building Industry Assn., said he has the legal right to continue his project.

Foreclosure

He said he acquired Hazard Hill in February after the previous owner went into foreclosure. Along with the property, Thompson said, he purchased a valid grading permit and an approved tract map.

“The city has a contract with us based on the tentative map,” Thompson said. He said approval for 39 homes was reached in 1980 and “grandfathered in” to the city’s 1984 specific plan for the area.

“Before you’re allowed to record a map, you have to sign an agreement and post bonds to complete improvements. The city is obligated from their side of the contract just as we are with ours.”

Thompson said his is a “classic vested rights kind of thing.” The 39 homes, he pledged, will be uncrowded, luxury dwellings that will sell for up to $800,000 each.

He said about 15% of the project’s 500,000 cubic yards of grading has been completed. About 14 pine and oak trees have been removed, and four others will also be taken out, Thompson said. About 1,300 trees will be planted as part of the tract’s landscape plan, he said.

“We believe the majority of the neighbors feel, if anything, that the project will improve the value of their property,” Thompson said. He promised that construction crews will not work at the site during the three-day Memorial Day weekend.

Homeowners were not convinced, however.

Richard Knox said he was jolted by the removal of the trees Thursday night and a cascade of boulders that tumbled onto nearby streets. He said he took snapshots when police came to investigate the falling rocks.

‘Open-Pit Mining’

Sandy Enfield, a homeowner who was active with Hazard during the lengthy legal fight in the 1970s, said Thompson’s land “looks like open-pit mining.”

Neighbor Bill Wilson charged that the city erred by allowing the grading to begin at the site without required tree surveys and wildlife protection efforts.