Iranian Jews Back to Step 1 in Zoning Bid

In December of 1983, a group of Iranian Jews received what they thought was final city approval to build a synagogue and cultural center in a largely residential Reseda neighborhood.

Plans were laid for a $2-million complex to be built around a 500-seat synagogue and a 3,400-square-foot multipurpose building.

“We had been to many hearings,” said Rubin Dokhamian, an Iranian refugee who serves as president of the Valley Iranian Jewish Center. “The center is the first in Los Angeles for us. It has always been our dream.”

Today, however, there are no new buildings on the two-acre lot at Calvert Street and Wilbur Avenue. The city has withdrawn its approval and concerned Reseda neighbors have renewed their complaints about the size of the proposed complex.

A new zoning hearing was held this month, raising the possibility of a new round of appeals.

Ironically, the revived debate was caused by the lack of a sign.

A sign, it seems, is the easiest way for a developer to maintain conditional-use permits granted by city zoning administrators. If the permits are not acted upon, they normally expire after 180 days.

To extend the permit, it is sometimes only necessary to post an announcement on the site, identifying changes planned by the owner.

At a March 15 hearing in Van Nuys, however, temple organizers admitted that they had forgotten about the 180-day deadline while completing plans and raising money for construction of the center. No sign had been posted, and no extention had been requested. When the deadline passed without a ground breaking, the permit was automatically withdrawn.

Legally, the withdrawal of the permit returns the temple organizers to the starting point of a controversy that began several years ago when they purchased the lot in a neighborhood zoned for low-density, single-family dwellings.

On Edge of Neighborhood

The lot, containing a small wooden house, is on the edge of a quiet neighborhood. To center organizers, it seemed an appropriate site for a complex that would serve the needs of an expanding community of Jewish-Iranian immigrants centered in the San Fernando Valley.

Driven from their homeland by the Islamic revolution led by the Ayatollah Khomeini, they are now part of a large community of Iranian-Americans living in Southern California. Dokhamian said that about 8,000 Iranian Jews live in the San Fernando Valley. He estimated that 20,000 live in metropolitan Los Angeles.

But those numbers seemed threatening to neighbors of the proposed complex.

At a series of hearings in 1983, they argued that the complex would ruin their quiet life style by attracting large crowds and creating traffic and noise. They also argued that the complex conflicted with the area’s low-density designation in the city’s general plan.

In June of 1983, the neighbors persuaded the city’s Board of Zoning Appeals to reduce the number of seats in the proposed synagogue from 500 to 350. That decision was reversed six months later after a hearing before the City Council.

But construction of the complex was delayed, Dokhamian said, while center officials waited for their architect to complete final plans. Before the plans were finished, the 180-day deadline expired.

Hearing on Reapplication

As a result, temple organizers were forced to reapply for permission to build the complex at the March 15 hearing before William E. Lillenberg, associate city zoning administrator. At the same time, the temple organizers offered to add 36 spaces to a proposed 100-space parking lot.

These requests drew a new round of complaints from neighbors, who repeated their request for a reduction in the size of the complex. The neighbors said the small house on the lot was already being used as a house of worship and cultural center in violation of city law. They also said traffic had already begun to build, along with noise problems.

“We’re determined to do something about this,” Al Sarnelle, a community spokesman, said after the hearing. “The fact that they want to build a religious center is fine, but this one is just too big. There isn’t one neighbor I know that’s in favor of this. This facility belongs in a commercial neighborhood.”

Lillenberg plans to issue a decision on the new application in the next “two or three” weeks. Dokhamian said he is convinced that the center would not disrupt the neighborhood.

Dokhamian also hopes that Lillenberg’s decision will not prompt an appeal to the Board of Zoning Appeals, which could lead in turn to another hearing before the City Council.

“We hope that this is the end,” he said. “We would like to begin to fit in.”