LAWSUITS LOOM ON LOT SIZES : HOMEOWNERS TIRED OF BATTLES.

Byline: Kermit Pattison Daily News Staff Writer

After more than a decade of legal wrangling with her neighbors and county planners, Jerilu Harvey is fed up.

For years, Harvey and her husband deferred plans to build a new home because of a quirky dispute over property boundaries in Black Canyon dating back to the 1920s.

Now Harvey and a handful of neighbors have given up trying to negotiate with other neighbors and the county for a collective lot line adjustment. Instead, they have decided to seek court orders to correct their property lines in the rural area south of Simi Valley.

``We shouldn't be held hostage to someone else's actions,'' Harvey said. ``If we're property owners, we should have rights to our property.''

The move is the latest chapter in a tortuous dispute over incorrect property lines in Black Canyon that has pitted neighbor against neighbor and prevented some residents from selling their homes or building.

``It takes care of the problem for these folks,'' said Ron Vogelbaum, an associate planner for the county. ``It doesn't help the larger problem except for getting a couple of people out of the way.''

The problem dates back to an inaccurate map drawn up in the 1920s before homes were constructed.

Because the survey plotted roads that did not match the topography of the land, developers built streets along a different route. Later, homes were built and the deeds recorded in reference to the roadway, skewing property lines by a quarter of a mile in some cases.

The county discovered the problem in the 1980s when surveyors noticed the discrepancy in the roads. But the roughly 20 property owners and the county have been unable to hammer out a collective lot line adjustment, holding up building permits, homes sales and refinancing.

Frustrated by the impasse over the lot line adjustment, several homeowners began to break away and seek court orders recognizing their correct property boundaries, a process known as quiet title.

County officials said three property owners have sought quiet title to correct boundary lines: Harvey; Janice and Tom Thelen; and Sheila and Gary Epstein.

But the court orders could actually delay resolution of the entire matter, said Assistant County Counsel Andrew Gustafson.

``It makes it a lot more complicated,'' he said. ``We told these people 10 or 15 years ago when all of this started there's an easy way and a hard way to do this. The easy way is for everybody to agree to do a lot line adjustment. The hard way is for everybody to sue everybody.''

``That is an indication that some people are giving up the easy way and trying the hard way,'' Gustafson said.

But for Harvey, quiet title seemed the last resort to a epic struggle. After moving to Black Canyon in 1975, she and her husband bought another property in 1988 hoping to build another house when the boundary dispute cleared up.

But now Harvey said she has given up. Assuming a new correct parcel map is approved and recorded, she said she plans to move into town in Simi Valley.

``It's just too stressful,'' she said. ``I just want a boundary with a fence and a little yard in front, a little yard in the back and live life without having to deal with this stuff.''