Near Sepulveda Dam Recreation Area : Panel OKs Encino Business Park

A Los Angeles City Council committee recommended Tuesday that the full council approve development of a business park of up to eight three-story buildings next to the Sepulveda Dam Recreation Area in Encino.

The Planning and Environment Committee voted 3 to 0 to approve the project, which sits on privately owned land at the southwest corner of Victory and Balboa boulevards.

The committee acted after Jim Dawson, an aide to Councilwoman Joy Picus, who represents the area, said the councilwoman supports the project. Dawson said Picus withdrew her earlier opposition after developer George Moss scaled down his original proposal, which called for several six-story buildings. The developer reduced the maximum square-footage of the development from 315,000 to 210,000 square feet.

Project Drew Opposition

At a hearing on the original proposal last fall, dozens of environmentalists and homeowners showed up to oppose the project. A city Planning Commission hearing examiner, who presided over the hearing, subsequently recommended that the property be developed for a “commercial recreational use compatible with the basin.”

Only one person showed up at Tuesday’s City Hall hearing to speak out against the project. Clifford Scherer represented the Community Advisory Council at Birmingham High School, across the street from the project site.

Scherer said he was worried that the project would set a “devastating precedent” leading to development of one of the San Fernando Valley’s largest remaining strips of green space. “I am very concerned by the fact that this will be the first commercial encroachment on the perimeter of the Sepulveda Basin,” Scherer said.

Denies a Precedent

But Phil Krakover, a lobbyist representing Moss, said the project would not set a precedent for development of the basin. He said Moss’ property is one of few still undeveloped, privately owned parcels adjoining the basin.

Krakover also contended that the proposal calls for much less development than provided in the area’s land-use plan, which was prepared with community participation.

The developer needs city approval to get the zoning on the property changed from agricultural to commercial. No date has been set for consideration of the committee recommendation by the full council.