Garage Apartments

Re “Recommendation on Garage Dwellings Shows No Vision,” June 1.

Mayor Richard Riordan’s proposal made at a Planning and Use Management panel and at City Council would gut single-family zoning as if to help the homeless. Meanwhile, property owners who conform to city codes are being discriminated against by paying building permits and raised property taxes while illegal builders profit from their wrongdoing due to failed enforcement of codes.

The Encino Park Improvement Committee (EPIC) represents and speaks for the interests of Encino Park renters and owners and is also a member of the San Fernando Valley Federation (SFVF), which speaks for all such groups.

We were aggrieved by The Times editorial, which described “leaders of homeowners associations protecting the supposed sanctity of the city’s single-family residential zoning” as if this is compassion-less, instead of backing single-family homes as the city’s backbone. [The editorial should have laid] blame for deaths in garages on decades of government irresponsibility (with law abiders the victims), on its agencies, such as Building and Safety and others that do not enforce codes, and on council members and a mayor who fight over constituencies instead of cooperating for the good of all.

On May 3, in concern for the city, the SFVF unanimously opposed conversion of buildings to substandard housing and the gutting of the housing code, and called for strict enforcement of all pertinent city codes. On June 7, the SFVF went further and unanimously requested strict enforcement of all housing and zoning codes now and without unnecessary and costly studies proposed by City Planning, Riordan and a majority of council members.

We request that The Times present the view of renters and homeowners as represented by the SFVF and EPIC--associations that are for quality of life, not slum life.

ESTERANNE BILLINGS

President, Encino Park

Improvement Committee

Encino