Who We Are

BACH was founded in 2020 by an alliance of hillside residents and organizations including Bel Air Skycrest Property Owners’ Association, Brentwood Hills Homeowners Association, Brentwood Residents Coalition, and Mountaingate Open Space Maintenance Association. Founding members are long-time community advocates who have been working for the benefit and protection of our Brentwood hillside neighborhood and wildlands for decades.

BACH was founded in response to the growing threat of climate change and the unprecedented risk of wildfire due to development encroaching into the fragile Santa Monica Mountains ecosystem.

BACH promotes sustainable communities, public safety, fire-safe land-use policies, and the preservation of habitat, wildlife connectivity, open space, trails, and the urban tree canopy. BACH forms strategic partnerships and builds powerful coalitions to advance policies and initiatives to decision-makers and through public education.

BACH advocacy includes supporting wildfire safety policy through legislation, educating the public and elected officials about the growing wildfire risk, supporting sensible wildfire and wildlife habitat policies to limit new development in the Santa Monica Mountains, engaging with community on these and other issues, and partnering with environmental and homeowner organizations to support these policies.

What We Do

  • Oppose out-of-scale development
  • Engage in issue advocacy
  • Write comment letters
  • Testify at public hearings
  • Educate the public
  • Mobilize stakeholders
  • Influence legislation
  • Hold elected officials accountable

What We Do

  • Oppose out-of-scale development
  • Engage in issue advocacy
  • Write comment letters
  • Testify at public hearings
  • Educate the public
  • Mobilize stakeholders
  • Influence legislation
  • Hold elected officials accountable

Founding Members Bios

Brentwood Alliance

Steve Drimmer has been a resident of the Mountaingate community high on the western flank of the Sepulveda Pass since 1986. Steve is currently the president of Mountaingate Open Space Maintenance Association (Mountaingate’s master HOA) and has served in that role for the past 17 years. As President of MOSMA, Steve has led the fight against the commercialization of the Sepulveda Pass and the Mountaingate community. Under Steve’s leadership, MOSMA has launched a series of lawsuits to stop the Berggruen Institute from violating the area’s zoning by establishing a giant project adjacent to protected open space. He is also currently working with Council District 11 to bring Mountaingate Country Club into compliance with the zoning for the area and their own planning approvals. With heightened concerns about the dangers from increasing wildfire risk, Steve has joined the Board of Trustees of the Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation and has raised funds to help supplement the LAFD budget and the needs of local firehouses. He was also instrumental in working with ALERTWildfire in bringing fire-spotting cameras to the Sepulveda Pass and ridges of Mandeville Canyon. Steve is continuing this work to bring additional cameras to the area. Steve imagines BACH will be a force to protect Brentwood’s canyon and hillside communities.

Steve Drimmer
Brentwood Alliance

Eric Edmunds is an environmental, real estate, and land-use attorney with his own practice and President of the 450-home Brentwood Hills Homeowners Association. He also serves as Chair of the Sierra Club Angeles Chapter Santa Monica Mountains Task Force. He has lived in Mandeville Canyon for 35 years, is an avid hiker and trail runner, and is intimately familiar with the trails of the Santa Monica Mountains. Eric has helped save hundreds of acres of open space as a founder of Save Our Mountains, Inc. and currently works with the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority in litigation to protect trails and open space. Eric graduated from UCLA Law School and Princeton University. He is a Temporary Judge of the Los Angeles Superior Court.

Eric Edmunds
Brentwood Alliance

Tom Freeman is a litigator and certified appellate specialist at the Bird Marella law firm. He is a co-founder and president of Canyon Back Alliance, a nonprofit public benefit corporation dedicated to maintaining public access to trails and preserving open space in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area and its environs. As counsel for Canyon Back Alliance, he has been involved in numerous judicial and administrative actions in furtherance of those goals-saving historic recreational trails and hundreds of acres of open space in the hillsides. Tom also serves on the boards of Brentwood Residents Coalition and is represented on the Hillside Federation.

Tom Freeman
Brentwood Alliance

John Given is an attorney in solo practice, exclusively representing plaintiff/petitioners with a particular focus on land use and environmental law, both at the administrative level and in litigation. John has served the Los Angeles hillside community for several decades through his extensive work on numerous boards, including Brentwood Hills Homeowners Association, Brentwood Residents Coalition, Canyon Back Alliance, and the Hillside Federation. John is a graduate of Loyola Law School and Berklee College of Music. Before embarking on his law career, John was a successful television and film composer and won an Emmy Award for his work on Disney’s Aladdin television series. He is an avid hiker and cyclist.

John Given
Brentwood Alliance

Mike Leslie is an attorney who specializes in environmental litigation, complex commercial litigation, and trials. He has been an officer and board member of Brentwood Hills Homeowners Association (BHHA) for almost 25 years and currently serves as vice president. He is an avid trail user who has been hiking and mountain biking in the Santa Monica Mountains for decades.  Mike enjoys this unique chaparral habitat and rugged landscape and knows its many flowers, birds, reptiles, and mammals, including our beloved mountain lions and bobcats.  Mike has worked tirelessly to preserve the natural Santa Monica Mountains environment, working with a consortium of community members and organizations to establish, protect and preserve the Westridge Canyonback Wilderness Park.  Most recently, Mike and BHHA were instrumental in stopping a giant 200-foot tall communications tower from impacting our beautiful open space at the top of San Vicente Mountain Park.

Mike Leslie
Brentwood Alliance
Wendy-Sue Rosen is a land-use policy consultant and community and environmental advocate. She currently volunteers her time on eight boards and eight environmental committees. In recognition of her leadership in Los Angeles County, Wendy has been honored with numerous awards from federal, state, and city agencies and elected officials. In 2007 she was named Assembly District “Woman of the Year.” Additionally, her dedication to our state has earned her the respect of Governors across party lines, that is why she is one of the longest serving Governor Appointees to the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy Advisory Committee. Wendy has recently focused her energy toward creating wildfire safety policy for the Santa Monica Mountains. In 2020, she worked to help secure sites for the ALERTWildfire camera system. And she co-founded the Sierra Club Angeles Chapter Wildland Urban Wildfire Committee where she co-authored a fire safety resolution adopted by the Sierra Club that earned her the prestigious Stan Weidert Award for “work on the creation of new Sierra Club California land use [fire] policy.” Wendy co-authored a similar resolution for the Los Angeles County Democratic Party also adopted in 2020.
Wendy-Sue Rosen
Brentwood Alliance

Lois Becker & Mark Stratton are proud champions of the Mulholland Scenic Parkway. They serve as Community Liaisons for Bel Air Skycrest Property Owners’ Association (BASPOA). For 15 years they have monitored development on the neighboring Mulholland Institutional Corridor and throughout the Sepulveda Pass and Santa Monica Mountains, working with the institutions and with city and county agencies to solve problems dealing with traffic impacts, public safety, and quality of life, in accordance with the Mulholland Scenic Parkway Specific Plan. They are currently focused on the development of Mission Canyon Park, reinstallation of LAFD helispots in Mission Canyon, and getting a paramedic’s vehicle reinstated at local Fire Station 109. Mark and Lois sit on several other boards including Brentwood Residents Coalition, Canyon Back Alliance, and the Federation of Hillside and Canyon Associations, where Mark serves as vice president. They are now proud to add BACH to their bios.

Lois Becker & Mark Stratton
Brentwood Alliance

Carolyn LoBuglio is a resident of Brentwood and an advocate for environmental causes. She hikes daily in the Santa Monica Mountains with her family, friends and her Boxer. She is an officer on the Brentwood Hills Homeowners Association Board and serves as the rep to the Hillside Federation. She advanced the siting and placement of the Alert Wildfire cameras on the Westside. She is an award winning Associate Broker with Coldwell Banker Realty and has brokered real estate donations to the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority. She is a member of several real estate organizations and is a Certified Negotiation Expert. Carolyn worked in Washington D.C. as a Legislative Aide for Congressman Pete McCloskey, Jr., covering Energy and the Environment. Prior to and following her time in D.C., Carolyn worked in the field of Broadcast journalism as a reporter for NPR and CNN, and as an assistant producer for segments of ABC News. Carolyn has devoted much time and energy to fundraising for environmental and medical causes. She served as a Board Member and an Officer of Stop Cancer, for almost two decades, funding cancer research at UCLA, USC and City of Hope. She possesses a BA in Communication Studies from UCLA and an MBA from the Graziadio School at Pepperdine University in Malibu. She is active in many UCLA alumni organizations including Westside Bruins, REAG, Prytanean, UCLA Parents Council Emeriti, and UCLA Faculty Women’s Club. She is also active in several community organizations including the Ebell of Los Angeles, the Brentwood Garden Club and the Coldwell Banker Realty Charitable Foundation.

Carolyn LoBuglio