VERDUGO PRESERVATION EFFORT SCORES VICTORY IN NEW PARK.Byline: KERRY CAVANAUGH Staff Writer An 80-acre parcel in the Verdugo Mountains The Verdugo Mountains are a small mountain range located just south of the western San Gabriel Mountains in Los Angeles County, Southern California, The United States of America (USA). The range is commonly known simply as the Verdugos. once proposed for a housing subdivision will be dedicated today as a public park. The $2.1 million land purchase curves around an existing housing tract and halts development's creep into the hills. It's part of a quiet campaign by conservancy groups and Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. City Councilwoman Wendy Greuel Wendy Greuel is President Pro Tempore of the Los Angeles City Council representing the 2nd District. Greuel was elected in 2002 to fill the remainder of the term of Councilman Joel Wachs. She was elected in her own right in 2003 and reelected in 2007. to buy land in the Verdugos that has been eyed for development. "When we saw the soaring soaring: see flight; glider. soaring or gliding Sport of flying a glider or sailplane. The craft is towed behind a powered airplane to an altitude of about 2,000 ft (600 m) and then released. home prices and the development in the community, we realized we had to start thinking about saving the Verdugo Mountains," Greuel said. "We don't want to look back and say, 'If only we had purchased that land and preserved the Verdugo Mountains."' The range of hills sandwiched between the Golden State and Foothill freeways has long been home to small ranches and open space, providing residents a semirural sem·i·ru·ral adj. Having both rural and urban characteristics: a semirural town; a semirural environment; a semirural way of life. lifestyle. Greuel initiated a Verdugo Mountains open space task force last year with residents and officials from Glendale, Burbank, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy is an agency of the state of California in the United States founded in 1979 and dedicated to the acquisition of land in the Santa Susana and Santa Monica Mountains and the Simi Hills, north and west of Los Angeles, for preservation as open and Congressman Adam Schiff's office. The group aims to pool money, purchase parcels that could be developed and coordinate trails and public space in the hills. Swaths of land already have been saved from development. The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy is going to take over 610 acres of open space set aside by the Canyon Hills development. That will connect to 490 acres purchased by the private Fondland Preservation Foundation. Nearby, the conservancy already owns the 1,100-acre La Tuna Canyon Park. That's right next to Burbank's Wildwood Canyon Wildwood Canyon is a protected area in California. It is still under development. External links
Los Angeles has been piecing together parcels to enlarge TO ENLARGE. To extend; as, to enlarge a rule to plead, is to extend the time during which a defendant may plead. To enlarge, means also to set at liberty; as, the prisoner was enlarged on giving bail. Verdugo Mountain Park. In 2005, the city used local and state park bond funds to buy 145 acres that was the missing link need to join other parcels into one 485-acre park. The 80-acre parcel dedicated today will expand the park and provide easier access to fire-road trails. The city was able to buy the property after the landowner was denied a request to subdivide TO SUBDIVIDE. To divide a part of a thing which has already been divided. For example, when a person dies leaving children, and grandchildren, the children of one of his own who is dead, his property is divided into as many shares as he had children, including the deceased, and the share his property for homes. While he could have tried again, Greuel said, her office persuaded the owner to sell the land for open space. Because of high land prices and demand for housing, steep property once considered too expensive to develop is now being proposed for housing. Bill Eick with the Shadow Hills Property Owners Association said residents along the Verdugos know they have to act now to keep the mountains untouched. "It's probably easier to save these parcels in big chunks, before it gets developed and we have to do it piece by piece," he said. kerry.cavanaugh(at)dailynews.com (213) 978-0390 CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Hiker and area resident Jim Cohan walks his dogs, Max and True, up a fire road on land near the corner of Edmore Place and Olivia Terrace. The land will become a park today. Tina Burch/Staff Photographer |
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