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Hello Foothill Activists!
I trust your holidays were happy. It's been a while since you heard from Canyon Area Preservation, so I thought this would be a good time to give you a New Year's update. I'll be publishing another official newsletter soon, but this notice is a bit faster way to give you the heads up. Here's the lineup:
1. Whitebird, Inc. is the out-of-state company planning to build 280 homes on land at the intersection of the 210 Freeway and La Tuna Canyon Road and going up to the Tujunga Cross, with a cluster of about 70 homes on one of the big ridges south of the 210 directly on LTC Road. Enclosed is a fact sheet and a map regarding the project, called Canyon Hills.
The next step in the process is the release of the Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR), which they have indicated will be out in "February or March" (according to their spokesman, Attorney Jack Ruben). Please copy and distribute the attachments to everyone in your neighborhoods. We told you about this project last year, and they are now moving forward with deliberation.
The map is hard to read at reduced resolution, so if anyone wants a better copy please contact me, but keep in mind that this is an early map and the final version will undoubtedly be different. The DEIR will be a huge and detailed document covering the grading plan, traffic impact, hydrology, geology, wildlife, and other issues. It will also present at least two alternatives to the plan they will propose. The Planning Department will use this document to evaluate the project, and the public will have time to submit written comments and other feedback from alternative sources. We will have at least 30 days to comment, but many people have already requested 90 days (or more).
The DEIR and public comments will be submitted to the Planning Advisory Agency, then to the Valley Planning Commission, then to the Planning and Land Use Management (PLUM) Subcommittee of the City Council, then to the full City Council. We will have several opportunities to provide input, but it is important to be involved in the early stages. The first phases are very technical, and every point they make in the DEIR needs to be analyzed and responded to.
The entire community is going to have to come together to deal with this project if we hope to have any influence during the process. There will be several organizing sessions to help people respond, and to coordinate our input. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE make yourself available when the time comes, get your neighbors involved, and look to Canyon Area Preservation for more information.
2. CALL FOR ENVIRONMENTAL EXPERTS - We know that many of you out there are smart, well connected professionals in a variety of fields. CAP members include attorneys, scientists, entertainment professionals, business owners, psychologists, doctors, as well as regular old committed folk such as myself. If you, or someone you know, can help us to prepare our response to the Whitebird DEIR, please let me know. We need traffic specialists, hydrologists, geologists, wildlife scientists and academics, earthquake experts, rare plant and animal scientists, Department of Fish and Wildlife people, Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy people, politicians and their staffs, freeway traffic and noise specialists, people who know the history of the native peoples in the area - you know, your average everyday neighbor! We're going to have to respond to a variety of data that will be part of the DEIR, and we need to spread the work of responding amongst many groups and individuals. This is a grass roots effort, not funded by outside money.
There may be a need to ask for donations so that we can hire the necessary experts. The Glendale VOICE folks who were very active fighting the Oakmont V development spent considerable resources raising money to prepare their documents, which were ultimately successful. They have advised us to get busy on the fund raising front, because the kind of documentation required for meaningful input will require hiring expensive consultants.
So, it's either find qualified people and companies willing to contribute their time and expertise, or we raise the money necessary to hire them. This is an important issue, and we're committed to the cause, so please step forward if you can, or at least let us know of companies interested in doing the work (we already know many people and companies who can help, but believe me, we need your assistance in this area).
3. FALCON - The Foothill Area League of Conservation Organizations and Neighbors (FALCON) was formed last November to establish an "early warning system" about land use issues (zoning, Community and Specific Plans, etc.) for the foothill communities. We discovered during the process of working on the Scenic Plan that many people in the area didn't know what was going on elsewhere in their communities. Developments were springing up, or projects such as those at Hansen Dam were being proposed, and no one really knew a lot about them except people in the immediate area. We wanted to have a way to get the word out, so we thought this "group of groups" would be a useful tool. Democracy is a wonderful invention, but as Thomas Jefferson has said it is based on an educated and informed populace.
FALCON consists of representatives from each of the major community organizations - CAP, Shadow Hills Property Owners Association, Lake View Terrace Homeowners Association, La Tuna Canyon Community Association, Sunland/Tujunga Neighborhood Council, Foothill Trails Neighborhood Council, the Sierra Club, Hansen Dam Advisory Committee, Valley Horse Owners Association, etc. etc. - as well as many individuals who are active in their communities. We want to expand it to the Chambers of Commerce, Native Plant Society, Audubon Society, and other groups as time goes on. We're tallying up how many members each of these groups have, but it's in the tens of thousands!
As information comes in to any member, we now have a way to distribute the information to all groups ensuring that the largest number of people can be contacted on any particular issue. Our main goal is to make sure that any future projects conform to the Community Plans, the Specific Plans, ordinances such as for Oak Trees and Slope Density formulas, and current zoning. After all, thousands of people have put in countless hours to craft these documents for the good of the community. Now we need to make sure they are enforced.
We hope you think this is a good idea, too. This is not another group to join, however. If you are already involved in a community organization, this will ensure that you hear about issues that are cropping up all over the place, so just continue to stay active in your chosen organization. For CAP members, this means I'll be sending out a lot more information on a variety of issues in the area (not just on a couple of the development fights or the Scenic Plan). If you want to receive more info, it'll generally come via e-mail and an occasional mailing. If you don't want to receive these updates, please let me know and I'll take you off the mailing list.
That's about it for this update. Thanks for your time and attention, and stay tuned for more information! Let me know if you have any input, feedback, etc. I'd love to hear from you.
Steve Crouch, Canyon Area Preservation (CAP) Views Editor, Email CAPViews@attbi.com.
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Proposed development in orange shading. Whitebird property in blue shading.
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