Politics & Government

Montecito Heights Residents Adamantly Oppose Flat Top Development

Residents said new development would "rape" community.

A group of about 50 locals filled the Montecito Heights Senior Citizen Center on Thursday evening to assert their opposition to the proposed development of a parcel of hilltop property known as Flat Top.

The Foursquare Foundation--which owns the 40-acre parcel--has tentative plans to develop 36 lots on Flat Top, each about 20,000-square feet in size, according developer Vince Daly.

The Four Square Gospel Church has owned 37 acres of Flat Top for about 80 years--the parcel purchased in order to erect three radio towers that would broadcast the sermons of founder Sister Aimee Semple McPherson.



Daly, who attended Thursday evening's Montecito Heights Improvement Association Meeting, said the Foursquare Foundation had hired his firm--Daly Group Inc.--to look at the property and devise a development plan.

He said that the preliminary plan called for developing lots with large backyards, which could potentially be deed restricted for the purpose of protecting open space.

 "We wanted to do the least impactful project possible," Daly said.

For the group that gathered at the senior center to protest the development, Daly's proposal raised some serious concerns.

Transportation Challenges

According to Montecito Heights Improvement Association President Roy Payan, the Flat Top Property is only accessible by Montecito Drive--a road that is at points unpaved and as narrow as 15-feet.

"How are you going to get up here without ruining our lives?" asked Montecito Heights resident Tuck Datig. "You cannot even begin this project without first paving that stretch of road."

"There's no way to build this project without first widening Montecito Drive, which will cut into people's property," another community member added.

Community members also raised concerns about the disturbance that the rumbling of heavy trucks traveling along Montecito Drive would cause during the contraction process.

"I agree that the road thing is a big deal," Daly said, adding it to a list of community concerns on white board he brought to the meeting.

Maintaining Open Spaces

The Flat Top Property has long been a wildlife haven, community members said, especially for coyotes.

Resident Bill Murray said he's already seen the coyote population near his home dwindle due to real estate development and didn't want to see the same thing happen on Flat Top.

"We want to make the yards open space," Daly said, responding to the concerns. "Conservation isn't that hard to do."

He told community members that he would work with them through the development process to ensure that deed restrictions would be placed on the properties to ensure that the back yards on Flat Top would remain undeveloped.

Tom Marble, a member of the Montecito Heights Improvement Association, told Daly that he didn't think it was likely that such a deed restriction could be imposed.

Another community member told Daly that an undeveloped backyard didn't truly amount to public open space.

The total Flat Top development footprint would comprise about 720,000 total square feet, about 41 percent of the parcel. Daly insisted, however, that only "5-10 percent" of the land would actually be built on, while the rest would be attached to open space deed restrictions.

Foreclosed, Unsold Houses

A series of easels were set up at the front of the senior center's meeting room, upon each was set a photo of home from developments completed on Montecito Heights in the last decade.

According to Payan, each development had failed due to the struggling housing economy, and left the neighborhood with a bloated inventory of empty houses.

Pointing to photo of a house located at 749 Montecito Drive, Payan explained that the project's developer had once been confident he could sell the home for $1.2 million. After failing to sell, each of the homes had been converted into Section 8 housing.

Houses in a development on Bernice Place remained empty for four years, Payan said, becoming dens for prostitution and drug use.

"Developers are coming up the hill all the time and saying they are going to be able to sell houses," Payan said. "They don't sell. Right now, you're just adding to an inventory of houses we can't afford."

Payan added that, in addition to the failed developments, there were also 45 foreclosed homes on Montecito Heights as of February 2012, according to the Los Angeles Times foreclosures section.

Hillside Ordinance May Kill Proposal

"I don't think they fully understand the ," Marble said.

Among other stipulations, the ordinance, which was passed in spring of 2011, prohibits the development of any building taller than 15-feet within 50 feet of a ridge line.

It also prohibits the construction of houses on stilts and requires that roads be widened to at least 32 feet.

"I think the compromises are going to be too great, financially," Marble said.

Further Meetings Planned

Though they were scheduled to appear, no member of the Four Square Foundation attended Thursday's meeting, leaving Daly to bear the brunt of the community's anger over the proposed project.

"They'll be here the next time, for sure," Daly said. "I'm not coming back without them."

Daly said he encouraged more community members to attend upcoming meetings.

"This is a complicated issue, there's a lot to it," he said. "We gotta get together and muck it out."

Though the project was still in it's preliminary planning stags, Daly said the Church was committed to completing the project.

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"They're pretty focused on moving this forward," Daly said.


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