Submit your written comments to the Redistricting Commission before it's too late! We will be
accepting written testimony with your feedback on the draft City Council district boundaries
until Monday, February 13, 2012 at 5:00PM.
To make sure your suggestions and concerns become part of the public record by this deadline,
email your testimony to redistricting.LAcity@LAcity.org, or you can click here to complete the
electronic form on our website.
Ideas for Written Comments: The following are comments already submitted to the Redistricting Commission.
IntroductionThe strong, cohesive and vocal Foothills Community in what is currently CD2, is most concerned with two important redistricting criteria: Existing Geographic Boundaries and Communities of Interest. The Draft Map proposes to “crack” our well established neighborhoods into two new council districts, CD6 and CD7. I'm sure you are familiar with the redistricting tactic to Pack or Crack a voter bloc. Your proposed Draft map “Cracks” our active and united community, splitting us among multiple districts, which will dilute our impact and prevent us from constituting a majority of voters who will work hard to protect our rural, equestrian, agricultural, and open space zoning.
The majority of voters in our combined neighborhoods of Sunland-Tujunga, Shadow Hills, Lake View Terrace, La Tuna Canyon, and Sun Valley constitute a strong united voice for preservation of open space, environmental sensitivity, a rural lifestyle, equestrian, agricultural, and low density zoning, and a passion for our shared history.We are a diverse community - a microcosm of the city at large, including the entire economic spectrum, and varied ethnic backgrounds. We are friends and neighbors of varied religious and political views who share common interests and lifestyles.Existing Geographic BoundariesOur United Community shares Existing Geographic Boundaries. We are surrounded by the majestic San Gabriel Mountain range, clearly visible to all of Los Angeles to the immediate north, and the lovely Verdugo Mountains to the south. This makes us, geographically unique, in the City of Los Angeles. We are lucky to have wild open spaces, wildlife, sylvan canyons, and trails. We are home to Big Tujunga Canyon, the mouth of the Los Angeles River. We are a community, who walks, hikes, mountain bikes and rides our horses throughout our mountains and Canyons. And the rest of Los Angeles joins us in these activities.We are a close knit community with a long cohesive history, and man made boundaries don’t define us but the natural, geographic boundaries like our beautiful Mountains, do define us as a community.In the 1960s, the 210 freeway was constructed. It split the overall Sunland community in half, with Shadow Hills and the Western part of La Tuna Canyon predominantly south of the 210 freeway and Sunland-Tujunga , Lake View Terrace, the Eastern part of La Tuna Canyon north of the 210 freeway. This man made Freeway was used in the Draft Map to construct a boundary which divides long standing communities of interest. We ask that you use the Mountains, around for eons, to define our boundaries because this is how we define ourselves.Your proposed map cuts apart Sunland, which is North of the 210, from Shadow Hills, just south of the 210. Shadow Hills is a neighborhood WITHIN Sunland. Shadow Hills is not a different city or town. Shadow Hills and Sunland share the same zip code and Post Office because they are really one and the same town; our children go to the same schools, parks, and churches. Our businesses are members of the Sunland Chamber of Commerce, our citizens are members of the same Rotary Club, Lion’s Club, and Little Landers Historical Society. It is not acceptable, and we believe contrary to Traditional Redistricting Criteria to crack Shadow Hills and Sunland apart.East and West La Tuna Canyon residents, home to many agricultural and equestrian zoned properties, share similar concerns as the neighborhoods of Shadow Hills and Lake View Terrace. The busy intersection of La Tuna Canyon and Tujunga Canyon Boulevard is the home of the historic Verdugo Hills Golf Course. Your proposed CD6 and CD7 divides our neighborhood further by segregating East La Tuna Canyon residents who actually live in Tujunga. La Tuna Canyon is the only road that directly connects Tujunga to Sun Valley.To summarize: The draft map literally divides the equestrian neighborhood of Sunland, known as Shadow Hills, and also splits Tujunga from from it’s recreational and equestrian sections known as La Tuna Canyon.Communities of InterestOur Communities are well inter-connected for transportation,--- autos- buses-and trainsThere are three main Continuous North-South Roads through this area. Coldwater Canyon starts in the South and becomes Sheldon St and then Wentworth in the NorthLankershim Blvd that flows into Tuxford and Becomes La Tuna Canyon RdVineland which becomes Sunland is our main North South Bus line that takes people from Sunland thru Shadow Hills down to the Bus hub at San Fernando Rd and connects to the metro station in North Hollywood.These roads take people to the main East-West corridors of Glenoaks, Roscoe, Sherman Way and Victory.People from Sunland-Tujunga and Shadow Hills shop in the shopping malls in Sun Valley and North Hollywood.We share City Services. Fire Station 77 and Foothill Police Division. Our Communities have pooled Monetary resources in the past to purchase equipment for these entities.Many of us share the North Valley Planning Commission.We have all been working together for the Mutual benefit of all our Neighborhoods for quite some time Please do not split us up.We share schools. There are nine LAUSD schools and two private schools in Sun Valley.Many young people from these different communities go to school together.Some young people from Shadow Hills and Sun Valley go to Verdugo High in Sunland.Some Sun Valley youngsters go to Arminta St Elementary and East Valley High School in North Hollywood.You will find children from all these communities enrolled in the two private schools.You will find Parents from all of these Communities working together at Parent Center meetingsUnited We Stand, here today, as communities of common interests. Working together for something that is important to us,our extended family, and our way of life.In 1932 our communities fought for a High School to be built and in 1937 Verdugo Hills High School opened.This public school, located in Tujunga serves students from several areas of Los Angeles, including Sunland, Tujunga, Lake View Terrace, and portions of North Hollywood, Sun Valley, and Shadow Hills. These areas are communities of interest. Poly High School in Sun Valley, is considered our "Home Town Rival." These areas are communties of interest and must stay together as one Council District.Our children, their schools and activities, are just one of the common threads that bind our communities of interest. Please keep us together in Council District 6.Lake View Terrace is a multi ethnic community that has a strong and dynamic equestrian community as well as recreational activities like hiking, running/jogging, soccer, biking, fishing and boating. Lake View Terrace identifies strongly with the other Foothill Communities located to the east: La Tuna Canyon, Shadow Hills, Sunland, Tujunga and Sun Valley. These Communties have many common interests including: the Big Tujunga Wash, the Rim of the Valley Trail, the Angeles National Forest, Lake View Terrace Recreation Center, Orcas Park, Hansen Dam, the equestrian facilities at Middle Ranch, the Hansen Dam Equestrian Center and the many other boarding facilities and open spaces that include the recently dedicated trails at the Angeles National Golf Course.Our common interest run so deep that when the Neighborhood Councils were formed, Lake VIew Terrace joined with their Common Communities of interest, Shadow Hills and La Tuna Canyon to form the Foothills Trails District Neighborhood Council. Please keep us together!Sunland, Tujunga, La Tuna Canyon, Shadow Hills, Lake View Terrace, and Sun Valley share numerous commonalities and deep bonds. Because of our linked objectives, much of the Tujunga Wash Watershed and Devil’s Gate Dam Watershed area remain almost pristine for all Angelenos. In fact, we are the group you read about who take in livestock and wildlife during fires, floods, and earthquakes. The Sunland, Tujunga, La Tuna Canyon, Shadow Hills, Lake VIew Terrace and Sun Valley communities have worked together diligently for many years to create a The Rim of the Valley Trail . Because of our efforts, The Rim of The Valley Trail will be preserved forever for use by all Angelenos. We work together as one, because we ARE one. Above all else, this interwoven quilt of common communites, stand firmly together to preserve Los Angeles’s few remaining open space areas for us all.Sunland-Tujunga, Foothill Trails District, Sun Valley Area Neighborhood Councils, together, purchased and share a License Plate Reader and Van for the Volunteer Surveillance Team at Foothill. We share LAPD Foothill Division’s Community Relations Officer and Senior Leads.We serve on Foothill’s Community Police Advisory Board (CPAB) and work together to mitigate quality of life issues in our communities. We also work together on CERT and attend refresher courses.Fire Station 74, serves Tujunga-La Tuna Canyon - Station 24, serves Sunland-Lake-View -Terrace-Shadows hills, and Station 77 serves La Tuna Canyon, Shadow Hills and Sun Valley, They each back up our conjoined communities. Sun Valley’s Station 77 is our Task Force station. Please do not divide our communities;it’s a matter of life and death.EquestrianIt is rare when you find a community with stronger common interests than in Lake View Terrace, Shadow Hills, La Tuna Canyon, Sunland, Tujunga, and rural Sun Valley. We as one complete community have the "horse" in common. Many of us own our horses. Others of us live in the non-equestrian neighborhoods and board our horses in the nearby equestrian facilities.For those of us who have no horse, but wish to ride on our network of trails, we can rent horses from local riding stables, and the many miles of trails for horses are also great hiking trails for those of us who prefer to walk on two legs.But it is not only horses that we find throughout our Community Plan area. We have farm animals as well. Children from all over the city visit, go for pony rides, and become familiar with farm animals, poultry, and horses as well as exotic animals like llamas. The benefits to the City of Los Angeles to preserve this rural area are priceless.Our Community Plan area is our common interest. We have the largest concentration of horses, agricultural properties, and equestrian-related businesses anywhere in the city of Los Angeles.Although the city benefits financially from these businesses, they are disappearing throughout Los Angeles - the once extensive rural areas of Los Angeles have been developed. Chicken farms, citrus orchards, olive groves, and farm land have given way to housing and commercial centers.Most remaining agricultural property is located along riverbeds and in the foothills, because these areas are difficult to develop. Our community is one of the last of these areas left in the northeast San Fernando Valley.Most of us moved to this area because of the rural lifestyle and the open spaces. We are a buffer between civilization and wilderness. Who else will protect our sensitive environment? That is a common interest we take seriously.We are a community fiercely united to work together to stop further development of our agricultural lands.Help us stay united in our common interests by giving us one Councilmember who will maintain in our behalf a clear and unmuddled policy of preservation.United in our common interests, the residents of our Community Plan area are determined to maintain our horse community and our rural lifestyle.Ours is a rich, historical and cultural bond which includes diverse equestrian lifestyles and traditions.We are home to gated horses, carriage horses, race horses, show horses, work horses, miniature horses, parade horses, endurance horses, rescued horses, boarded horses, trail horses, and horses for rent.We have equestrian drill teams including military and police teams. We have horses that compete in rodeos, horse shows, and train for the Olympics. We ride English, Western, Australian, and bareback.We have numerous equine non-profits including civic and community activities for everyone. We help heal and educate Angelenos from gang members to children with cerebral palsy.But the current proposed plan divides us into two council districts and diminishes our common interests in our equestrian and agricultural community. Please keep our Community Plan area united and in one Council District.If you follow the hoof-prints, the financial impacts and common interests run deep in our Community Plan area.Equine Business has a vast impact on our local neighborhoods creating a common need to be uniformly served by one Councilmember.Among those equine businesses are real estate sales, truckers hauling hay and grain to feed stores, delivery trucks taking hay and grain to farms and ranches, horse trailers moving horses around, many various kinds of insurance, shops selling tack and equestrian clothing, feed stores, training and teaching facilities, rodeos, horse shows, restaurants, farm workers, farriers, horse dentists, chiropractors, large and small animal veterinarians, and waste removal. Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!If every horse and burro just in our area is licensed at $14 per equine, that alone is an income to the city of $140,000 a year.When you add it all up, it is a 900 million dollar industry in the city of Los Angeles according to 2007 data.To divide this Community Plan Area with its common interests is to begin its demise. That will not benefit us and it will not benefit Los Angeles.We, the residents of rural Sun Valley, Lake View Terrace, Sunland, Tujunga, La Tuna Canyon, and the Shadow Hills neighborhoods who reside together in this Community Plan area have so many common interests that it is imperative that we remain undivided and within one Council District.City infrastructure and city planning is of utmost importance to us, because we have the highest concentration of equines boarded in this region of Los Angles. The estimates are in excess of 10,000 horses in this area according to 2007 data.Because the needs of our agricultural and equine community are specialized, a single Councilmember for our entire Community Plan area is mandatory in order to work cohesively on behalf of our entire community.The DOT, Public Works, and the county must work with one Councilmember in concert with the equestrian community to accommodate special equine needs for services such as waste removal, water, cross walks, roadway lanes, multi-purpose D&G sidewalk-paths, emergency equine rescue, health issues, roadway safety and access for horses.Agriculture and equine zoning issues need to be handled under one educated Council Office to insure a comprehensive plan to improve special issues for our agriculturally zoned properties and our equestrian needs.K-overlays, building setbacks, design standards for stalls, arenas, and barns are issues which are distinct to and of common interest to us all in the agriculturally zoned Community Plan area.As horse people we help each other when disasters strike. That is really important here as we are prone to high winds, frequent floods, and fires which are becoming more prevalent. No one knows better how to help their neighbors than their neighbors particularly in agricultural and equestrian communities.Fire, Police, City Planning, and Building and Safety respond better to one effective council office representing the entire community with clear guidelines and proposals. Please reconsider your redistricting plan which divides us. We are united in our common interests of maintaining our rural lifestyle and open spaces. Thank you.We are currently together in one Council District and one Community Plan area for a reason - our common interests.Trails are of great importance to all of us who live here; Hansen Dam is the connective tissue of our trails and the heart of our equestrian communities. It is mandatory and in our common interest that we have Hansen Dam with its wildlife and its horse trails within our district.Trail infrastructure and maintenance of our network of trails which connect our communities involves safety for horse and rider, secure and open access to trails, and preservation of our vast open spaces.Adjacent to Hansen Dam and the Angeles National Forest, we are deeply concerned for the preservation of our watershed, our wildlife, and our wildlife corridors.Garnering a strong equestrian voice, generating effective spending budgets, and obtaining a more responsive government mandates a unified community including rural Sun Valley and all of Lake View Terrace under one Councilmember who will continue to support our common interests.Historic Resources and PreservationMany people in our Community share a common interest toward preservation of our rich history. We have at least 8 City declared Historic-Cultural Monuments in the Sunland-Tujunga Community Plan area, and 2 in the Sun Valley Community Plan area. Additionally, the Stonehurst Historic Preservation Overlay Zone, in Sun Valley, has 92 homes built using stones gathered from the washes and foothills of Tujunga.The Office of Historic Preservation, SurveyLA, conducted their first survey in our neighborhood. They discovered that the density is lower in Sunland-Tujunga than in other areas of the city, but survey teams found a high concentration of interesting resources. They noted the Arroyo stone terracing, walls, ruins and buildings - EVERYWHEREIn Tujunga, we have McGroarty Street, named after famed poet and State Senator, John S. McGroarty. His home, now the McGroarty Arts Center, is Historic Monument #63. City Historic Monument #2, Bolton Hall, is also in Tujunga.In Sunland, we have layers of history at Sunland Park, and Apperson Street Elementary School, is an award winning Mid-Centruy Modern style building. We have residences designed by famed architects - John Lautner in Shadow Hills, and Pierre Koenig in Tujunga. We have California Craftsman and Ranch style houses, and the SurveyLA team noted the variety of historic buildings and 19th century farmhouses along Foothill Boulevard from Lake View Terrace through Tujunga.Volunteers are a vital to our community, building a strong sense of togetherness.Bolton Hall - LA Historic Monument #2, in Tujunga, was built in1913. It is the home of The Little Landers Historical Society, it is run by volunteers, with members from every corner of our community. We often meet at Bolton Hall for lectures, meetings, and events - we even sing and dance there just like the old timers did!Our volunteer community keeps the Verdugo Hills of Peace Cemetery clean and free of vandals. Neighbors from every corner join together for community clean up efforts in the wash, bake sales, and holiday celebrations. We embrace our shared history and it defines us.[b]Our Community of Interest includes:Lake View Terrace – ALL of Lake View Terrace; Sunland-Tujunga; Shadow Hills,La Tuna Canyon and Sun ValleyWE ARE ONE COMMUNITYWe reject the draft map released by this committee on January 25th as arbitrarily dividing our tightly linked Community of Interest as violating the laws and guidelines laid out in the criteria for the City’s Redistricting Process which states that…“…all districts shall be drawn in conformance with requirements of state and federal law and, to the extent feasible, shall keep neighborhoods and communities intact, utilize natural boundaries or street lines, and be geographically compact.”We are One Community. We are under One Community Plan, legally recognized as such by the City of Los Angeles.Reading directly from Our Community Plan:“The Sunland-Tujunga-Lake View Terrace-Shadow Hills-East La Tuna Canyon Community Plan Area lies in the northeast quadrant of the City of Los Angeles. It is approximately fifteen miles from downtown Los Angeles”.The ties that connect our Community of Interest run deep and are indeed historic. The Sunland-Tujunga-Lake View Terrace-Shadow Hills-East La Tuna Canyon area was first developed back in the 1880s.The 210 (Foothill) Freeway and Foothill Boulevard both BISECT the area from southeast to northwest. Unlike your draft map, they DO NOT DEFINE our perimeter.Big Tujunga Canyon Road and Sunland Boulevard project through the area in a southwesterly direction. La Tuna Canyon Road bisects the Verdugo Mountains from east to west. Hansen Dam Park, Orcas Park (now called Gabrielleno Park), Verdugo Hills High School, and the Verdugo Hills Golf Course are situated WITHIN the plan area.Tujunga Canyon Wash and natural resource preserve areas are also located IN the community, as are flood plains draining into the region from the San Gabriel Mountains.It is important to reiterate here that our Community of Common Interest surrounds Hansen Dam and Hansen Dam must be included in our council district!Local volunteer groups -- primarily from our community -- spend thousands and thousands of hours annually caring for and stewarding Hansen Dam, as well as the contiguous Little and Big Tujunga Washes well in excess of the minimal City resources allocated to this important, environmentally-sensitive open space.
We are Lake View Terrace – ALL of Lake View Terrace. We are Sunland-Tujunga. We are Shadow Hills. We are La Tuna Canyon. We are Sun Valley.WE ARE ONE COMMUNITY and must be recognized as such by our City Comissioners.
We, the residents of Sunland, Tujunga, Shadow Hills, Lake View Terrace, Sun Valley and La Tuna Canyon, understand the enormous challenge you have faced in undertaking this enormous task. We sympathize with the abbreviated timeline you have been unfairly forced to work under. We know the Brown Act has prevented adequate communication between many of you.Now please understand us. This map is severely flawed. This map will not work and it is unacceptable to us and our communities.Instead of dumping all of us out of CD2 into 2 different council districts, instead of tearing apart our close communities, we say to you; tear up this map.
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