Bitter Development Conflicts Flare In Los Angeles

"In the hills of northeast L.A., debate flares over property rights and preserving open space....

Some of the city's last big undeveloped parcels...have become the staging ground in a bitter, protracted dispute, with distinct class and racial overtones, that is a microcosm of the exploding development struggles across Los Angeles...

Some want emergency rules to slow development while the neighborhoods devise long-term guidelines for growth. Others contend those proposed rules represent a vast overreaction and threaten to rob homeowners of their investments for no good reason...

In a period of housing shortages and shrinking open space, should hillsides be sacrificed for homes? Should homeowners who bought property and made plans under one set of rules be restricted by new limitations that could cost them return on their investment? Is it coincidence or design that wealthier areas of the city's Westside are governed by zoning and building plans while the less well-off, predominantly Latino Eastside grows more pell-mell?"