Whitebird Ready to Build Hillside Homes in Verdugo Mountains

For nearly two decades, Whitebird has sat on approved plans to build more than 200 homes in the Verdugo Mountains above Sunland-Tujunga – until now.

The Nevada-based developer and landowner Rick Percell have pulled a grading permit to construct 221 homes at 7000-8000 La Tuna Canyon Road, north of the 210 Freeway and west of La Crescenta, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The homes, approved by the Los Angeles City Council in 2005, will be built on the north edge of the Verdugos in a gated community known as Canyon Hills.

Initial plans called for 280 single-family homes, a 3-acre equestrian park and the preservation of 693 acres of open space, according to a nearly 20-year-old environmental study.

The city approved the development on the condition Percell reduce the number of homes to 221 and donate 395 acres south of the freeway to the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy.

The 142-acre subdivision would consist of luxury homes on lots that average 17,000 square feet, or 0.4 acres.

The hillside project has been controversial from the start, with some local residents saying it would ruin the rural character of the area.

Now residents and environmentalists opposed to the development say the project will build over an ecologically important wildlife area and leave residents in the path of worsening wildfires.

They’re calling for the project to be halted — or at least delayed — until a new environmental impact report can be conducted.

“I just think 20 years is a long time in terms of climate conversations and environmental concerns,” Emma Kemp, a Tujunga resident and co-founder of the group No Canyon Hills, which began a campaign opposing the project, told the Times.

A petition opposing the project started in February has more than 165,000 signatures.

“Before you start chopping down this mountain based on a report that was conducted in 2003, can we just reassess so we can make sure that we are taking really responsible precautions?” she asked. “You know, once you cut it up, you can’t go back.”

Whitebird says it is within its rights to proceed with the project, which was granted a 20-year window of completion when it was initially approved nearly two decades ago.

The city’s development agreement acknowledges that “significant and unavoidable impacts will result from implementation of the project,” but concludes that “the benefits outweigh and override” such impacts.

Benefits include quality housing and hundreds of construction jobs. The agreement also states the project will replace old oak trees with new plantings that will aid habitat, and cut fire risk by introducing fuel modification zones.

Since the agreement was approved two decades ago, at least three wildfires have scorched the area, including the La Tuna fire of 2017, burning 7,200 acres and torching five homes, critics say.

Jack Rubens, an attorney for the developer, rejected claims about fire danger, saying the project will reduce the wildfire risk for residents living north and east of the site by providing a new southern evacuation route to La Tuna Canyon Road and the freeway.

The project will also include a new million-gallon water tank, which can be used by firefighters “who will have far superior access to the hillside after the project’s road system is constructed,” he said.

— Dana Bartholomew