Sierra Club Opposes Badly Planned Projects
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* In her attack on the Sierra Club (Letters, Jan. 2), Soka supporter Alexis Byfuglin claims that the Sierra Club “did not stand up to, and even praised” previous big developments such as Baldwin, Micor and Ahmanson Ranch.
She is wrong on all three counts.
The Sierra Club came out in opposition to the Baldwin development when it was first proposed in 1987. That opposition helped reduce the development from 1,507 homes, 1.5 million square feet of commercial space and a very costly highway to 550 homes, 200,000 commercial square feet, no road and a 640-acre park donation. The Sierra Club did not support even this scaled down project.
The Sierra Club opposed Micor in 1992 and helped fund the lawsuit that overturned the approval.
The Sierra Club opposed the Ahmanson Ranch development in December, 1992, and, as was reported recently in The Times, has submitted a brief in the pending lawsuit.
The Sierra Club does not oppose all developments. We do oppose those that exceed prevailing land-use plans and violate good environmental planning. All of the above proposals were guilty on both counts, as is Soka’s proposal for a major urban facility (almost twice the floor space of Topanga Plaza!) in the heart of a particularly scenic, unspoiled area of the Santa Monica Mountains.
ELDEN HUGHES
Los Angeles
Hughes chairs the Quercus Fund of the Los Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club.
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