Limits on High-Rise Development OKd : Council Votes to Stop Major Projects Along Congested Ventura Boulevard

The Los Angeles City Council moved swiftly Wednesday to severely limit building along heavily congested Ventura Boulevard through Encino, Sherman Oaks and Tarzana until a solution can be found to traffic problems there.

The council ordered that a one-year moratorium on construction be drafted, with emphasis on projects more than three stories high that would substantially increase traffic on the crowded thoroughfare between Coldwater Canyon Avenue and Reseda Boulevard.

Councilmen Marvin Braude and Joel Wachs introduced the measure from the council floor, bypassing the usual, often lengthy, committee process for winning approval of legislation. The measure was approved 12 to 0.

Before it becomes final, the moratorium must go back before the council for another vote.

Similar Plan Rejected

Under heavy lobbying from real estate interests, the council last fall rejected a similar proposal to freeze construction on Wilshire Boulevard in Westwood, even though it was supported by that area’s councilman, Zev Yaroslavsky.

Braude, who represents Encino and Tarzana, and Wachs, whose district includes Sherman Oaks, have received many complaints from homeowners that their streets are becoming bypasses for Ventura Boulevard traffic.

The moratorium is designed to give the city time to prepare, in the words of the measure, a “transportation management plan” for Ventura Boulevard.

Cindy Miscikowski, Braude’s chief deputy, said she expects the plan for modifying zoning along Ventura Boulevard to reduce the density of building allowed. But she said the plan may allow developers to build under current, more liberal zoning if they can design their projects without making traffic problems worse.

Maximum Development

Braude, in introducing his measure Wednesday, said: “The problem is that traffic and development on Ventura Boulevard have intensified at a rate faster than we anticipated when we were drafting community plans for Encino, Tarzana and Sherman Oaks.

“This has happened partly because commercial property owners have developed to the maximum degree permitted.”

The moratorium would affect major projects for which a building permit had not been issued as of Wednesday. Projects of three or fewer stories would be exempted.

A developer could go ahead with a high-rise building, under the moratorium, “if the council finds that adverse traffic, circulation and density impacts will be mitigated.”

Mitigating factors could include contributing to a fund used to pay for traffic improvements on Ventura Boulevard, Miscikowski said.

Cautious Praise

The council action drew cautious praise from Gerald A. Silver, head of an Encino homeowners’ group that has pushed for a total ban on construction along Ventura Boulevard until permanent development restrictions could be imposed.

Silver said some sections of the boulevard now warrant a one-story limit to “control the damage” that developers have caused.

Wednesday’s council move “is like shooting a pea at an elephant,” Silver said. “And the elephant is charging down the boulevard.”

Richard Close, president of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn., said he was pleased by the council’s action but warned, “The battle has just begun.

“There are some landowners who will fight to the death against this moratorium because they want high-rises,” he said. “There’s big money at stake here, and therefore, there will be a big battle.”

Close said Valley homeowners stand a better chance of winning approval for a moratorium than did their counterparts in Westwood.

“So much of Westwood has been developed,” Close said. “The council wasn’t sympathetic to stopping the last 10%. In Sherman Oaks, the numbers are reversed. We need this moratorium to prevent 90% from being improperly developed.”