SUN VALLEY : Residents Upset at Building of Flood Channel

Erica Koesler’s back yard once proffered a view of a steeply rising, wooded hill bottomed by a tiny creek that burbled down narrow Chandler Canyon during rains. The hilly neighborhood on Roscoe Boulevard was an unlikely, peaceful splinter of nature in mostly grimy, urban Sun Valley.

But soon, the landscape behind Koesler’s back yard will be obscured by three six- to eight-foot-tall chain link fences. And already, a broad scar in the earth has replaced the creek bed and attendant saplings and sage bushes.

Soon, concrete will be poured for a $2.1-million, seven-foot-wide, 3,300-foot-long flood control channel, debris basin and access road that the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works says is necessary.

But residents are upset about the project and want it to be dramatically scaled back.

“It’s a total waste of money,” said Koesler, who said the canyon has not flooded in the eight years that she has lived there. “They’re just trying to find work. It’s complete overkill. Even in the recent heavy rains we had, nothing flooded. We’re trying to do something about it.”

County officials maintain the project would not have been proposed unless it was crucial to flood control in the area.

“There was a history of damage from past storms, a big problem with erosion that has undermined adjacent properties,” said Donna Guyovich, a spokeswoman for the Department of Public Works. “Our flood control experts make the determination.”

Guyovich said she did not know exactly which properties in the area had been damaged.

“There’s just no way to make everybody happy about this thing,” said Nelson Nelson, the county’s liaison engineer for the project. “It’s a beautiful area, and I felt kind of bad about it.”

Nelson added that once finished, the heavily fenced channel would have a positive impact on security in the neighborhood, by making it difficult for intruders to get past the channel into residents’ back yards.

Some residents weren’t impressed by the promise of heightened security.

“I bought this house just for the view,” said Aram Ter-Martirosyan, who lives near the top of the hill. “This is such a beautiful canyon, I fell in love with it. The house needed a lot of work, but the area was so pretty, I didn’t care. They tore down all the beautiful trees. It seems they could have done a smaller project. People have said to me, ‘If there’s a problem with a flood, we’d rather have that than accept this concrete channel.’ It looks like a jail.”

Others said the flood channel will put an end to hikes up the canyon.

“It was a very nice little back area for walking,” Janet Jensen said. “My husband and son used to hike up there. It was nice, because even though we’re in Sun Valley, which is terrible, we were nicely secluded. Now it’s going to look just the way it looks up and down Glenoaks Boulevard. Concrete and chain link.”