Dear Neighbors

There is a vital poll posted on Nextdoor Mandeville.  The poll asked for your opinion of a gigantic double-mega-mansion project on huge bulldozed pads in Sullivan Canyon below Westridge.

Development Description:

(Following this description please find instructions for voting in the poll)

For the past six years, a developer,  Sullivan Equity Partners (SEP), has been trying to secure the City’s  permission to build two 15,000-square-foot mansions and more than 6,000 square feet of “accessory” structures on the slopes of Sullivan Canyon below Westridge; this would be the equivalent of building 12-18 “normal-sized” homes on this site, flattening and filling a pristine canyon to create the building pads, moving approximately 177,000 cubic yards of earth – enough to bury a football field under more than 30 feet of dirt, stone and rubble.  Construction fires are common, and this project would take 5-6 years of construction in an Extreme High Fire Danger Zone. 

It would forever spoil a pristine beautiful wildland, that is home to countless creatures, a wetland and a perennial blueline stream. The project would be accessed by the very narrow Old Ranch Road in Sullivan Canyon, which means years of truck and construction vehicle traffic through the Old Canyon equestrian neighborhood. 

The Los Angeles City Council and City Attorney Mike Feuer are currently in talks to settle the lawsuit filed by SEP to undo the five-year stop-work ban (previously imposed because of extensive illegal tree removals by this builder). If SEP prevails, it will be able to re-start it’s project.

Environmental activists and wildland supporters, including the (Santa Monica) Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority and chapters of the Sierra Club and the California Native Plant Society, have strongly urged Feuer and the City Council NOT cave into the developer. Councilman Mike Bonin opposes the project.  The developer challenged the city’s stop-work order and won on a technicality in Superior Court. But the environmental community and its attorneys believe the city can remedy that technicality. 

How to vote:

In the NextDoor search box type in the words “oppose/support” (with or without quotation marks). The search results will include a post entitled “Poll” “John Schwada, Mandeville Canyon” and “Do you OPPOSE/SUPPORT CONSTRUCTION of TWO 15,000sf MEGA-MANSIONS in OUR WILDLANDS?” Open that post and at the bottom of the original post are the poll voting choices. There are two options: “I oppose the SEP project…” or “I support the SEP project.” Click on your choice, and you’re done. Your vote is completely confidential

If you oppose, please email Councilman Mike Bonin (councilmember.bonin@lacity.org) and City Atty. Mike Feuer (mike.feuer@lacity.org) and urge them to protect this priceless natural haven.

The Poll is sponsored by

Poll Sponsors: Sara Nichols, Sullivan Canyon resident, environmental activist/

Barbara Williams, Westridge Terrace resident, actor and author

John Binder, president, Upper Mandeville Canyon Assn.

Eric Edmunds, Chair, Sierra Club Santa Monica Mountains Task Force