By Eliza PARTIKA

The Crescenta Valley Town Council Land Use Committee held a meeting to discuss the Area Plan and a request from a resident for street expansion on Canyonside Road and Briggs Avenue.

Inquiries were made by the developer, a La Crescenta resident, to build on land bordering the canyon but the developer had not moved forward with the permitting process, according to engineers present at the meeting. Representatives from the County of Los Angeles were invited to explain the need for a 20 ft. widening of a public access road for the resident to access his property.

The developer ended up withdrawing the proposal to vacate an adjourning street easement.

Some of the big permits needed by the developer would be for the placement of a fire hydrant a certain distance from the property and the need for firebreaks in addition to other environmental requirements. To build on this site, engineers with the County said the developer would be required to be approved by 15 different permitting agencies. The County was first approached about the property in 2021. The three-story house planned for the area had reportedly been worked on since 2014.

Neighbors who attended the meeting voiced concerns that the addition of a driveway would impede access to a public road that could pose a risk during an emergency, such as a fire or earthquake; they also expressed concerns about the instability of the hillside on which the road expansion and the house are proposed to be built. Some residents said sections of the canyon have been known to crumble unprompted, and urged the County representatives to go to the site before making any final decisions on plans for the site.

“That hillside is very, very fragile,” said one resident. “It’s made up of rocks about the size of our heads, and tons of them stacked on top of each other, held together by soil and roots. Now with this developer building caissons and going 50 feet down, my concern is that this is going to get disturbed.”

“You are putting all of us [on the hill] in danger,” said another.

At the end of the meeting, residents agreed to make one person the liaison for communications between the County and the affected neighborhood.