VALLEY LAND WAR ERUPTS NEIGHBORHOOD BORDERS AT ISSUE.

Byline: Holly Edwards Staff Writer

CANOGA PARK - A territorial dispute over some of the most valuable commercial property in the San Fernando Valley has pitted three communities against each other and prompted dozens of Canoga Park residents to accuse city officials of misconduct and deception.

At issue is a swath of land bounded by Vanowen and Victory boulevards, De Soto Avenue and Topanga Canyon Boulevard - an area characterized by sprawling shopping centers and huge commercial lots.

City officials recently designated the area part of the new Woodland Hills-Warner Center Neighborhood Council's territory, sparking outrage among Canoga Park residents who view the land as historically their own.

So far, 52 proposed neighborhood councils have turned in applications for review by the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners, and 13 neighborhoods have been certified, including three in the Valley: Woodland Hills-Warner Center, West Hills and Pacoima. Councils for the neighborhoods are intended to serve the City Council as community advisory committees, thereby making city government more accessible to everyone.

However, with no official map to guide neighborhood designation, more than 20 boundary disputes have cropped up as communities try to determine where their borders begin and end, said Greg Nelson, general manager of the city Department of Neighborhood Empowerment.

In other disputes, officials said Sherman Oaks and Van Nuys both claim a section of Van Nuys Boulevard, between Magnolia and Burbank boulevards, and Sherman Oaks also is fighting with Studio City - over a residential area south of Ventura Boulevard between Coldwater Canyon and Longridge avenues.

``We knew when we started this process that we were trying to establish boundaries for neighborhoods that never officially existed,'' Nelson said. ``There are no maps and no magic answers. We're doing all of this from scratch.''

In the West Valley, Canoga Park community leaders say the Woodland Hills-Warner Center Neighborhood Council organizers claimed the Vanowen-Victory area to ensure that their community would be commercially wealthy and predominantly white.

``They never reached out to the minority neighborhoods in their area, and by taking this land they've made sure their group is 86 percent white,'' said Joe Vogt, one of the organizers of the Canoga Park Neighborhood Council, which applied for certification last week. ``To us, that's discrimination.''

Vogt's group charged that city officials said both communities could share the area but lied about it.

Canoga Park residents also complained that Warner Center business interests stand to profit when one of the commercial lots in the area is put up for sale. Therefore, they said, designating the area as part of the Woodland Hills-Warner Center Neighborhood Council amounts to a conflict of interest.

And they say their influence over the development of this commercially important area would be lost.

City officials, however, say the disputed area is part of the territory for which the city Planning Department approved the Warner Center specific plan to guide development. And, they say, none of the property owners in the area expressed a desire for their land to be considered part of the Canoga Park neighborhood.

The community should determine its neighborhood boundaries, said Bill Christopher, president of the board that approves neighborhood councils.

``The (disputed) area overlaps the traditional boundaries of Canoga Park, but the boundaries of Warner Center are also defined by the specific plan, and no one in that area said they didn't want to be there,'' Christopher said.

``The other thing is that Woodland Hills and Warner Center have been at odds for decades, and part of the city's neighborhood empowerment program is to bring these disparate interests together. We viewed their coming together as a big step forward.''

But City Councilman Dennis Zine, who represents part of the disputed area in Canoga Park and Woodland Hills-Warner Center, said he was disheartened and troubled by boundary disputes - conflicts, he said, that defeat the purpose of having neighborhood councils.

He suggested that city officials put a moratorium on certifying more neighborhood councils until boundary disputes are resolved.

``The neighborhood councils were intended to bring communities together and give our residents more representative city government, not create more conflict,'' he said. ``Secession is brewing in the San Fernando Valley, and the worst thing we can do is ignore these disputes.''

City Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, who also represents part of the disputed area, said one possible solution is for neighborhood councils to form subcommittees to get together and discuss issues and areas of mutual concern.

While Canoga Park community leaders say they fear they have lost their ability to weigh in on development in the Vanowen-Victory area, Miscikowski said that is not the case.

``We cannot let rigid boundary divisions divide us,'' she said. ``If something is happening in that area, it will affect both communities, and both communities will have a say. It's an important commercial (section) for both areas, and communities don't stop at any particular street.''

Community leaders involved with the Woodland Hills-Warner Center Neighborhood Council formation say they have repeatedly offered to meet with Canoga Park community leaders, but all of the offers have been rejected.

``They really didn't want to talk about it or work with us,'' said Sandy Enfield, who temporarily chairs the Woodland Hills-Warner Center Neighborhood Council. ``They just wanted it all.''

But Canoga Park residents said they didn't know the commercial area was included in the Woodland Hills-Warner Center plan until early this year. And when they found out, they said, city officials told them it was too late to appeal or protest.

``In all my years of community service, I've never seen such a one-sided result. It's just obnoxious,'' said Ron Clary, who is involved in the Canoga Park Neighborhood Council formation effort. ``If you amputate an economically important part of the community, it's obvious that what's left is going to be harmed.''

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LAND DEBATE