Sunland-Tujunga Caught in Middle of Housing Boom By BRAD SMITH Staff Reporter Sunland-Tujunga is the kind of place where residents lined up to sign petitions when Starbucks proposed building a store in the community nestled between the San Gabriel Mountains and the Verdugo Hills. But they were not lining up to fight the plan; they were lining up to urge the Seattle-based coffee giant to bring the shop to the 8300 block of Foothill Boulevard. “Starbucks said that has been the only time they’ve had a petition to build a store,” says Los Angeles City Councilman Wendy Greuel, who represents the area, almost wonderingly. “But if you drive down Foothill Boulevard you see fast food restaurants and auto body shops, so you can understand it.” Sunland-Tujunga, with about 70,000 residents, fills the far northeastern corner of the city of Los Angeles, in the west end of the Crescenta Valley that stretches east-west above Burbank and Glendale. To the west, in the San Fernando Valley, small ranchettes, zoned for horses, shade into the grittier neighborhoods of Pacoima and Lake View Terrace; to the east, increasingly wealthier neighborhoods, Montrose and La Crescenta, lead into even wealthier La Canada Flintridge and Pasadena. Sunland-Tujunga is in the middle, in more ways than one. “It is a community that has been left alone for many years, and in many ways the residents like it that way,” said Greuel, a Valley native who re-opened a field office in Sunland her predecessor had closed once she was elected. “But that is kind of a double-edged sword.” Sunland-Tujunga (Sunland lies to the west, Tujunga to the east) has good freeway access with highways 210 and 2, and relatively abundant space for new homes in the surrounding foothills. That reality, a rarity in mostly built-out Los Angeles, has led to repeated proposals for large developments. The 280-home Canyon Hills project is planned for 186 acres along La Tuna Canyon Road, north and south of the 210; the Angeles National Golf Course, designed by Jack Nicklaus, is underway in Tujunga Canyon, and multi-family projects with hundreds of units have been proposed elsewhere in the community. Project review One attractive prospect of the plan is the developer’s pledge of 700 acres of hillsides to the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy in exchange for entitlements and the planned single-family residential development, but Greuel said that may not be enough to win her support or that of the communities. “There’s a lot of concern about whether (the project) will open the hillsides up even more for development, once the infrastructure goes in, ” Greuel said. “The city is going to be looking very carefully at that.” At the same time, the existing residential stock, including small cottages dating back to the early 1900s on very small lots, has become increasingly attractive to buyers priced out of adjacent cities. “A lot of yuppies are buying here because it is affordable,” said Fran Vernon, a residential broker who has worked in the Crescenta Valley for 16 years. Even in Sunland-Tujunga, a “starter” home 2 bedrooms and one bath can run well into the $300,000 range, Vernon said. “It is really a place that is up and coming, and we’ve sold a lot to people who had been looking in La Crescenta, Burbank, or Glendale, and have not been able to find what they want,” she said. The neighborhood’s specific plan calls for a retail and arts district on Commerce Avenue, and Greuel and the Commerce Avenue Merchants Association have secured about $45,000 for cleanup and beautification work in the past two years. A new, 45,000-square foot retail project anchored by a drug store has been built at Foothill and Tujunga Canyon boulevards. Also available for redevelopment are a former auto dealership and a Kmart discount store in the 800 block of Foothill. The Kmart store, which closed this month, has been purchased by Home Depot. The home improvement chain has not announced plans for the site, but the community’s Neighhood Council voted Wednesday to oppose a building supply store. “It’s not that we’re against growth, but we want it to fit the infrastructure,” said Nina Royal, who moved to Sunland-Tujunga in 1988 from Glendale because of the rural lifestyle. “We’re growing so fast we can’t keep up with it.” Sunland-Tujunga -Former Kmart store: The store, in the 800 block of Foothill Boulevard in Sunland, has been sold to the Home Depot company. Home Depot has not announced its intentions regarding the site, but the City of Los Angeles, through Councilwoman Wendy Greuel and the Economic Development Department, plan meetings with the new property owner; -Proposed Canyon Hills housing development: The project, on 187 acres near La Tuna Canyon Road and the Foothill Freeway (Highway 210), would allow 280 single-family homes on 187 acres.
