Demonstrators Fighting Road Chain Selves to Bulldozers

A five-hour standoff between a Tarzana developer and protesters who chained themselves to bulldozers ended Monday when the builder agreed to halt work until Los Angeles City Councilman Marvin Braude can mediate a dispute over a road through the project.

Environmentalists are fighting a city requirement that developer Harlan Lee pave an extension of Reseda Boulevard southward into the Santa Monica Mountains as part of the 178-home luxury subdivision he plans to build.

Workers starting construction of the road were blocked at 6:15 a.m. when 10 protesters jumped in front of bulldozers and chained themselves to the equipment. Another 15 protesters chanted and made coyote-like cries from the sidelines--startling two deer grazing on a nearby hillside.

The protest was called off at 11:20 a.m. after Sierra Club leader Jill Swift used a news reporter’s car phone to arrange a Thursday showdown meeting with Braude, and Lee pledged to shut his project down until then.

Jubilant protesters cheered and hugged as they removed their chains and leaped off the earthmoving equipment in rugged Caballero Canyon at the southern edge of the San Fernando Valley.

They said they hope Braude will waive the road requirement, which would link Reseda Boulevard for the first time with an unpaved portion of Mulholland Drive in the mountains. The environmentalists said they fear that the boulevard extension will hasten other development in the mountains--including proposed garbage dumps in Rustic and Sullivan canyons near Pacific Palisades.

“We hope we can get a continued moratorium,” said Deborah Widel, a Northridge resident who had padlocked herself to the front of a 20-ton earthmover. “I still have my chain. I’m definitely prepared to do what I have to do again.”

Hours after the protest ended, however, Braude held out little hope that the road requirement would be abandoned.

He said the city has long looked to Reseda Boulevard as an important public entryway into mountain wilderness recreation areas of Topanga State Park. If Lee doesn’t build the road, taxpayers will have to pay for its construction later, he said.

Braude dismissed suggestions that the road’s extension would hasten development of the mountains and lead to the creation of canyon landfills between the Valley and the ocean.

“The road will be reviewed again,” Braude said. But he stressed that he will continue to support the boulevard extension “until I can be shown how you satisfy the needs of the public some other way.”

Braude’s position was supported by leaders of the Tarzana Property Owners Assn. Joel Palmer, president of the residents group, said its members prefer that Reseda Boulevard be used for mountain access instead of other residential streets in their community.

Monday’s demonstration was the third in recent days by opponents of the road project. On Sunday, about 200 protesters marched from the boulevard’s end through Caballero Canyon to the unpaved section of Mulholland Drive near the crest of the Santa Monica Mountains.

There were no injuries and no arrests during Monday’s protest, which took place opposite the front gate of Braemar Country Club.

Members of the club seemed shocked by the protesters’ banners--which carried slogans such as “Developers Go Build in Hell” and “We’re Not Bambi and Thumper, but Just Because You Don’t Know Us Doesn’t Give You the Right to Destroy Our Home.”

Braemar club member Randi Berney of Tarzana was among those carrying signs, however.

“I’m a full-blown capitalist,” Berney explained. “But I don’t think you have the right to infringe on wildlife, no matter how much money you have.”

Lee, a Marina del Rey developer who previously agreed to donate 440 acres of hilly land next to his new homes to the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy as future parkland, said he did not call police because “we’re trying to be fair and work this thing out a little bit.”

Bulldozer operator Trace Greenelsh of Cypress said he quickly shut his machine down when protester Janice Wilson of Simi Valley stood in front of its blade and demonstrator Ben Rosenfeld of Tarzana leaped into his cab and chained himself to it. Both are members of an ecology group called Earth First.

“I was real little in the ‘60s, when things like this used to happen,” said Greenelsh, 30. “I never thought I’d see anything like this.”

Equipment driver Joe Navarro, 23, of Ontario, did not get his huge dirt-scraping machine started. Monday was his first day at work after two months of unemployment, but protesters were marching onto the construction site when Navarro’s parents dropped him off.

“I needed the work. I guess I’m out of a job,” Navarro said dejectedly as he sat on a boulder while the protesters folded up their banners.

Lee was sympathetic, however. He said Navarro would be hired as a watchman at the equipment site while a settlement to the dispute is sought.