Center to pay $150,000 to settle lawsuit over Holocaust museum expansion

The Simon Wiesenthal Center has agreed to pay $150,000 to a neighborhood group that opposes its planned Museum of Tolerance expansion to avoid going to court in the long-running dispute.

Most of the money will cover legal fees incurred by Homeowners Opposed to Museum Expansion, a group of residents who fought plans to extend the museum’s hours and replace a Holocaust memorial garden with a multistory reception and banquet space, said Susan Gans, an entertainment attorney who has led the opposition since 2007.

The homeowners group had filed a lawsuit alleging that the city had conducted an inadequate environmental review of the project. The case was slated to go to trial Feb. 23, Gans said, but the group has agreed to drop the case.

The city voted last year to approve the project even though planners said the 28,000-square-foot expansion would increase traffic, generate construction noise and contrast sharply with the adjacent neighborhood of single-family homes.

The project had the strong support of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Jack Weiss, then the area’s councilman.

Opened in 1993, the museum, the educational arm of the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, encourages visitors to confront bigotry and racism and to understand the Holocaust. Each year it welcomes about 300,000 visitors.

Under the approved plans, the museum will be allowed to rent out space for conferences, workshops, banquets, parties and concerts. Most events will have a cap of 500 attendees, although the limit will rise to 800 people for as many as 12 events per year. The museum will be able to hold as many as 18 evening events per month. Events lasting as late as midnight will be limited to 10 per month.

“Basically, the conditions are a carte blanche for the museum to do whatever it wants, and they provide no effective limitations and virtually no protection for the adjacent residential community,” Gans said.

Susan Burden, the Wiesenthal Center’s chief financial officer, said the center was confident it would have prevailed in court but “preferred to amicably resolve the remaining issues with our neighbors.”

She said the center would continue to work with Councilman Paul Koretz, who now represents the area, and neighbors “if any issues arise.”

Koretz said in a statement that his office “will do what we can to help make sure the museum is the best neighbor possible.”

Gans said about $20,000 of the settlement funds would be used to reimburse elderly residents who contributed savings or pension money to oppose the expansion. Anything remaining after those payments and a projected $100,000 in legal fees, she said, would be used to install noise-monitoring equipment.

martha.groves

@latimes.com