Not Her Kind of Candidate : Woo ‘Off Base’ in Opposing Development

Councilman Woo, not for the first time, is way off base in his attempt to stick a “black hat� on the head of a legitimate developer who is attempting to develop a 52-acre hilltop parcel in Sherman Oaks. The tentative tract map, was, as you pointed out in your Feb. 3 issue, approved by city officials back in 1982.

If a handful of homeowners and a publicity-seeking councilman can stop an already approved subdivision of 31 homes, then the future of Los Angeles housing is in real trouble.

Councilman Woo points to the geological problems involved with grading. Apparently, he and the homeowners believe that the grading will increase the current flooding problem when it rains. Yet the developer, George Bergmann, stated in your article that he will build a 54-inch storm drain that will solve the problem. If the councilman is so worried about the flooding problem, why doesn’t he “use all the resources available� to build the storm drain with city money? If the city doesn’t build the drain and Woo stops the developer from building his subdivision, including the drain, the flooding problem will continue.

I suggest that a development that will increase the area’s tax base, stop flooding and provide housing that will obstruct no one’s view is a positive step. Councilman Woo should stop worrying about publicity and get to work on the real problems in his area: drugs, gangs, hippies and near-slum conditions.

NEIL BOYLE

Hidden Hills