On June 20th, the North Hills West Beautification & Infrastructure Committee hosted a community clean-up on Roscoe Blvd, between Woodley Place and Gothic Avenue. Twenty local residents and Neighborhood Council Board members participated in the successful morning event that removed 16 (1.5 cubic yard) containers at approximately 375 lbs. each, filled with trash and overgrown vegetation near the Van Nuys Airport. In addition, the Valley Sod Farm contributed the use of a 20 yard dump truck and filled an additional 6,000 lbs. of raw road debris to complete the project. In total, 12,000 lbs (6 short tons) of debris was removed from Roscoe Blvd.
The efforts of North Hills West residents paid off, revealing an underutilized sidewalk that has been mostly covered for years! “This is a great first step in making North Hills West a more walkable and livable community,” said David Phelps, Chair of the North Hills West Beautification and Infrastructure Committee and clean-up organizer.
The West Valley Alliance and CD12 staff were instrumental in providing the tools for the clean-up, the first of several planned in the coming months. Special thanks to NHWNC President John McGovern and Dan Gibson of the Valley Sod Farm for the use of their heavy equipment and crew, which made the Committee’s ambitious undertaking possible. “We targeted Roscoe because it is a major thorough fare for commuters returning home from work or making their way through North Hills. This Boulevard serves as a major border to our community, and it’s important that we do everything we can to keep it clear and clean,” said Phelps.
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The Beautification and Infrastructure Committee works primarily to keep the North Hills West area up to the standards of its resident Stakeholders. We attend to community improvement projects such as reporting graffiti and illegal dumping for removal, planting native California plants in community planters, addressing weed control, and general clean-up of trouble areas including but not limited to sidewalks and alleys.
In the short term, the Beautification and Infrastructure Committee will focus on cleaning up the intersection of Roscoe and Hayvenhurst, where the open space has become an industrial eye sore for the community. Future committee topics will address community branding and improved signage for North Hills, as well as populating the planters on Hayvenhurst and Plummer.
If you are interested in participating on the Committee, please contact Committee Chair David Phelps at yourpolicyguy@yahoo.com.
