Content area
Full Text
Sunland-Tujunga, long known as Los Angeles' rural outpost of craggy canyons, secluded houses, horse trails and a onetime motorcycle gang hide-out, is in the midst of an identity crisis: Build a Home Depot or shop at a mom-and-pop hardware store? Hilltop McMansions or open space? Support a revitalized main street or promote more tract home developments?
"It's at a crossroads," Councilwoman Wendy Greuel said of the 6- mile-long, 2-mile-wide community cradled between the Verdugo and San Gabriel mountains. "It's a moment where people are saying, 'We want to control our own destiny.' "
But the challenge confronting city planners and lawmakers is how to balance the interests of residents, who relish their hideaway community, and many newcomers, who enjoy their spacious homes and aren't necessarily opposed to growth. The most recent flare-up involves whether a Home Depot should be permitted to open on the site of a shuttered K-Mart, a decision under review by the Department of City Planning.
The proposal has become symbolic to many preservation-minded residents, who believe that the opening of a regional big-box store that caters to construction and home improvement signals a lamentable change: Their hideaway has been discovered, the era of canyon tranquillity may be ending.
"It just has to be protected, or the kids won't be able to see any wildlife or flora," said Elaine Brown, who lives near the Big Tujunga Wash -- a rocky, white plain that floods during heavy rains. "They won't know what it's like to be in the country. They'll never see a horse."
What Brown does see is the march of construction.
Over the three-year period that ended in June 2006, 365 housing permits were issued in Sunland-Tujunga. Though that number may not seem particularly startling, it represents a 317% increase over the previous three years and reflects the recent red-hot red estate market.
The growth comes to an area where for years the only "hot" feature was the weather. Sunland-Tujunga largely escaped the explosive growth in the late 1980s and '90s in neighboring Sylmar and Lake View Terrace. It had never been a prestige address in a region where foothill communities -- Chatsworth, La Canada- Flintridge, Bradbury, Glendale's view homes -- generally command top- of-the-hill prices.
But in recent years...