Motion for Shadow Hills General Plan Amendment

June 13, 2006

Re: Wendy Greuel's 9/23/2005 Motion for Shadow Hills General Plan Amendment

Dear Councilmembers,

Thank you very much for all your efforts to help safeguard our very unique equestrian life style here in the City of Los Angeles. It is Los Angeles that made all my life time dreams come true about being able to afford to own and keep a horse.

It is thanks only to the RA zoning that made this possible for me. I cannot afford to keep a horse in a very expensive commercial boarding facility. The RA zoning allows home owners to legally accept 2 backyard boarders without a CUP. Such back yard boarding fees over the last 20 years since I have lived in the Shadow Hills area, have varied between $100 to still under $200/month. This is a great service to both the home owner in having some extra income, and and to the boarder by ensuring very inexpensive horse keeping.

It is true that the 20,000 square foot lots are too small for the very serious horsemen to have arenas for training and practicing. This is especially true in the hillsides. However, for trail riders, they can just get out on the trail on an already trained horse. In such cases, not having training arenas is often not a big issue, as we see in the K overlay lots.

Over the past couple of weeks, I have attended some meetings about this issue, and I have collected feedback from some VHOA members and some community leaders. Based on the feedback, concerns, and information I have collected, I have 3 things to request.

The first thing I wish to request is that some very strong wording be included to the effect that the residents wish to see all remaining RA zoning be continued as RA. We feel the benefits of RA far outweigh any benefits from any RE designation. The biggest benefit is the greater variety of animal keeping that is permitted (as well as those 2 backyard boarders), and that the RA is a more restrictive zoning, more protected. We observe, and it seems to us that little respect is accorded to the remaining RA and that only higher and higher density is favored. This must stop. The unique character of these last remaining equestrian neighborhoods must be protected having historical, educational (for 4H, and for children to take up riding instead of being in gangs), and recreational value. Plus we are low crime neighborhoods. We are low crime, because kids work their animals in their back yards, and everybody is out and about with their livestock, which is the greatest crime watch you could ever have. We consider and wish to point out that our love of animals is a contributing factor to having virtually no crime. These neighborhoods offer great educational and recreational opportunities to all Angelinos. As you continue to variance us out, of course, less and less benefit. It is not our fault if these areas are getting smaller and smaller, able to accommodate less and less! VHOA and many many community-leader VHOA members have been advocating saving our life style for almost 40 years. Many others have been at this even longer. It is time - it is way overdue to place strong protective wording to thwart destructive greed and safeguard the the RA zoning of these last very special neighborhoods.

The second thing I wish to request is that the rural Sun Valley end of Shadow Hills, not be included in this motion. The reason being that we are uncertain of what the ramifications might be to existing homeowners if the RA zoning is changed in Shadow Hills, and if this area is included. Especially in light of the recent designation of this area as an environmental justice zone. Again, the priority of people living in the Shadow Hills area is to safeguard our agricultural zoning.

The third thing I would like to request is that the Footnote 22 in the Shadow Hills Community Plan simply be changed to state 40,000 square foot lots in place of 20,000 square foot lots. It seems that at the community plan level it is legally acceptable to state that, as the 20,000 already replaced a legal description.

Thank you very much for your attention and care regarding this very important matter.

Sincerely.

Carol Locus Ford
President