Tujunga residents fighting development plans for former Verdugo Hills Golf Course

TUJUNGA, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Tujunga area residents are fighting a developer over the former Verdugo Hills Golf Course, hoping to dramatically scale down the project's plans.

The developer, Snowball West Investments, is pushing for a zoning change that would allow it to build 215 homes on the 57-acre site. Its current zoning would limit any development to roughly 20 homes.

"We are talking about a gratuitous zone change for this area from something that is already zoned for about 20 houses to 215," said Mark Dutton of the Communities United CD7 group that is fighting the development. "That is unreasonable."

Eyewitness News called the phone number associated with Encino-based Snowball West, but it went unanswered with no voicemail option.

Mayor Eric Garcetti says the proposed project is "too big."

"I hope those negotiations will yield something which is respectful to the wildlife, respectful to the nature, respectful to the greenery and respectful to the community scale which is proper for that area," Garcetti told Eyewitness News.

Dutton says a 200-plus housing development would further clog already traffic-choked roads and create a dangerous fire hazard.

"It is in a very high-wind area," Dutton said. "On a very high-fire-severity zone and it sits on an earthquake fault zone. If that's not an argument against this I don't know what is."

The developer's request for a zoning change is slated to go before the Los Angeles Planning, Land Use and Management Committee on Nov. 12 at 2:30 pm.