Hidden Creeks Developers Face Tough Q&A at Neighborhood Council

Representatives from the proposed Hidden Creeks Estates development project appeared Wednesday before the Chatsworth Neighborhood Council and were peppered with questions from audience and board members who had doubts about the project and were in a mood to debate.

Concerns about the 188-home, 285-acre project in the undeveloped hills north of Chatsworth focused on the project’s traffic impact, preservation of equestrian trails for public access, fire safety, grading and earth removal, and water percolation.

“We’ve met with Chatsworth’s Land Use and Equestrian committees many times,” said Hidden Estates project manager Mike Sanders after the meeting. “At those earlier meetings there were a lot more concerns, and we’ve tried to incorporate them.”

“The concerns we heard tonight are very manageable,” he added, “including how to make the trails permanent. I’m sure we’ll be successful in getting them addressed.”

No vote was taken by the Chatswrorth council on the project, which is winding its way through the approval process. The next step for the project is set to take place Sept. 23 before a city of Los Angeles Planning Commission hearing officer, who will review the final Environmental Impact Report.

Hidden Creeks faces a lengthy approval process because developers have staked out the project on unincorporated land currently zoned by the county for 33 ranchettes. The land consists now of rolling hills and brush within a historic wildfire corridor, about two miles north of Sesnon Avenue and northeast of Browns Canyon Road.

Plans call for building 188 homes, with 25 slated to accommodate horse boarding. Prices for the finished homes would range from $1.3 million to $2.5 million.

Mason Avenue in Porter Ranch would be extended to the project and a bridge built to provide access. Existing Mountain Meadows stables would be expanded to board 120 horses, 40 more than currently boarded.

Encircling the project would be trails for horses and hikers on open space of 114 acres on mainly unbuildable land. Plus, a public park with three athletic fields would be designated for use primarily by Northridge girls softball teams.

That park plan came in for criticism when Christina Walsh questioned the compatibility of team sports and the traffic it brings with equestrian trails. She called the site a “wilderness area” and asked about the use of lighted batting cages in the park.

The developers responded that the park and equestrian areas are on opposite ends of the development, with access to the park via Porter Ranch and city streets and trails underneath a bridge. Further, the batting-cage lighting would be down-lit to reduce nighttime glare, Sanders said.  

Ensuring the public use of equestrian trails was also questioned. Hidden Creeks' land-use attorney Wayne Avrashow said the developers would keep the trails in use by specifying them in tract maps and in the development agreement with the city and by placing deed restrictions on the land. But some in the audience cited examples in other communities, such as Granada Hills and Indian Falls, where homeowners gate and lock existing trails.

Concerns were also raised about adequate space for horse trailers to turn around within the equestrian trailer staging and fire safety area. The developers responded that they would comply with city codes to ensure adequate space exists in the staging area and that the horse lots would follow city rules on the number of horses to be allowed per square footage.

Retired Los Angeles Fire Capt. John Brodie, representing the developers, said he called upon his years of fighting fires in Browns Canyon to examine the development plan.

“After looking at the plans the developers have for this project, I’m truly impressed,” Brodie said. “From a firefighting standpoint, it’s a win-win.”

Among the project pluses Brodie cited was the creation of “defensible space”—grass, wide streets and pavement surrounding the development—that would act as a fire barrier. Further, a 1-million-gallon storage tank, new fire hydrants within the community and space to land firefighting helicopters would also help battle blazes, he said.

With two main access roads, Mason Avenue and Browns Canyon Road, firefighters would no longer have to battle their way up Browns Canyon as horse owners struggled to bring their trailers down, he said. That traffic impasse would be “a thing of the past,” Brodie said.

Other concerns raised by audience members focused on construction traffic and parked trucks on Browns Canyon; the 6 million cubic yards of earth that would have to be moved; and the exhaust fumes and dust that would be kicked up as a result.

“We’re not cutting off the tops of hills and filling in valleys, as was done in Porter Ranch,” Sanders said. “We’re coming in and stabilizing the soil, we’re not grading.”

The development will follow the contour of the land, Sanders said, though he admitted that construction vehicles would, of necessity, have to use Browns Canyon and that dust and exhaust would be unavoidable during construction.

Chatsworth resident Jeffrey Sjobring voiced concern about an after-effect of development: water percolation downhill into the land south of the 118 Freeway, where he lives.

“We have aquifers coming up in people’s yards from the project above Rinaldi because the city overlooked things,” Sjobring said.

Sanders said Sjobring could review the geology report for the project.

At the end of the session, Neighborhood Council President André van der Valk reiterated that no vote had been taken but that developers had heard comments from the public about their project.

Other items addressed at the meeting included:

• Election of new Chatsworth Neighborhood Council board member: One vacancy exists. Anyone seeking to serve on the council must fill out an application; the new board member will be elected at the council's October meeting.
• Fire station equipment: Fire Station 96 will be provided $900 for welding equipment.
• Fire station staffing: A letter will be sent in opposition to reductions in staffing at Chatsworth fire stations.

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