Granada Hills North Neighborhood Council, The Valley's Most Neighborly Town: Home

WelcomeWelcome to the new Granada Hills North Neighborhood Council website!

The Granada Hills North Neighborhood Council is officially certified by the City of Los Angeles to serve as a forum for stakeholders to address issues in Granada Hills and to communicate with the City of Los Angeles.

Survey LA is a multi-year project with the goal of identifying significant historic places throughout Los Angeles and the people and events that formed our social and cultural history.

Beginning in 2009, professional survey teams will canvass the City, neighborhood by neighborhood, to assess the potential historic significance of properties. They need your help to identify those places that may not be architecturally significant, but are associated with an important person who contributed to the development of the city, or with an event of social significance. In order to find those places, you are invited to share your stories with them.

Visit www.Surveyla.org and click on the "MyhistoricLA" link where you can tell them about what is important in your neighborhood. The website is extremely interesting and packed with information about the whole process of surveying Los Angeles.

Over four thousand youth participants representing 150 entries marched down Chatsworth Street on Sunday, December 7th. This year's theme was "Favorite Holiday Movies."

The Granada Hills Holiday Parade is the largest holiday youth celebration in the San Fernando Valley featuring celebrities, marching bands, equestrian units, youth groups, drill teams, and decorated floats.

Granada Hills North Neighborhood Council (GHNNC) obtained certification from the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners (BONC) on September 10, 2002. After two years of discussing the NC system, our community decided it would be a great idea and would eventually be a very useful tool. We held our first organizing meeting in June, 2001. It was a long and arduous process and there were many community members who contributed hours upon hours of volunteer work to get every aspect of the expectations and procedures of BONC completed, organized and done properly. We felt then and still feel that our community is special; therefore we took time to try and make it the most fair and best Neighborhood Council we could be.

There are many stakeholders and board members or former board members who should be thanked for being there from the very first organizing meeting and worked so incredibly hard; without them it wouldn’t have been able to happen. In alphabetical order, these people were the most instrumental in starting this brand new City branch of community-based government - they were either on the steering committee, quickly took over other committees, and helped get the word out to everyone within our boundaries and to other citywide NC’s. Some of them got elected to the first board and others either still sit on the board or have stayed involved: Wayne Aller, Teresa Anderson, Becky Bendikson, Dave Bendikson, Patrick Casparian, Greg Chaussee, Karen Chaussee, Mary Ellen Crosby, Rick Driscoll, Mary Edwards, Ginger Fong, Sid Gold, Michael Greenwald, David Hood, Harriet Hood, Wayde Hunter, Joshua Jordahl, Mary Anna Kienholz, Frank Kiesler, Vaune Kirby, Ralph Kroy, Scott Manatt, Sharon Manatt, Cherie Mann, Dave Parikh, Ben Pedrick, Bob Ricketts, Sheva, Susan Tipton, Kim Thompson, Joe Vitti, Nicole Wilkin, Donna Zero, Tony Zero, and Anne Ziliak in addition to all of the former and current board members.

At the BONC meeting on December 2, 2008, we were given our 5-year certificate from BONC (one year late). At the meeting, Leon Marzillier and Kim Thompson reported on Best Practices learned from other NC's, what we feel we’ve done successfully and where we felt we were lacking. Some members and stakeholders were there during the meeting. Congratulations to everyone involved in GHNNC!

Recent wildfires in the hills surrounding the San Fernando Valley have burned over 20,000 acres, removing the natural home of many wild animals.

Coyotes have been seen seeking food and water in the streets of hillside neighborhoods in Granada Hills.

Coyotes, racoons, skunks and other wild animals generally avoid people. However, it is a good idea to keep pets indoors after dark, and especially to not leave dog or cat food outside because it attracts animals.

Do not touch or attempt to feed or capture wild animals. The Department of Animal Services advises residents to leave them alone unless the animals appear injured, sick or aggressive. In that case, please report the animals to West Valley Animal Shelter at (818) 756-9325.

Some residents in Granada Hills have reported foul odors coming from the area around Sunshine Canyon Landfill.

In response, we contacted the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD), and they have sent an inspector to the landfill to investigate the odors and measure air quality.

Anyone who wants to reports foul odors or other air-quality related problems can call the AQMD at (800) CUT-SMOG.

The L.A. Mayor and City Council would like as much input as they can get from Neighborhood Council Board members and stakeholders about their priorities for the 2009-2010 city budget. What would you increase in the city’s budget? What would you decrease or eliminate? You can make your opinions known by filling out a survey HERE.

In the ongoing fight against crime, the LAPD has come up with a new way to report criminal activity. You can now text the information to "CRIMES" (2-7-4-6-3-7) to make an anonymous report. Do your part to get the criminals off the street. This tip as well as other information was passed along via E-Police bulletin. Sign up to receive it by going to http://lapdcrimemaps.org/. You can also check out the crime reports in your area while you are there.

The Beautification Committee is launching a Graffiti Watch program. Your help is needed to stop graffiti now. When you see graffiti, contact Your Local "Graffiti Watchers" and have graffiti removed in 48 Hours: