Exemption Sought for 6-Story Encino Hotel

A developer who wants to build a six-story luxury hotel in Encino is lobbying for an exemption from the one-year moratorium on high-rise construction along Ventura Boulevard that is pending before the Los Angeles City Council.

The moratorium, which would ban buildings more than three stories high, has been approved by the Planning Commission and is to be voted on by the council Sept. 24.

Heltzer Enterprises has purchased two acres and prepared preliminary designs for a 250-room hotel at Ventura Boulevard and Gaviota Avenue.

In a letter to city planners, Heltzer officials asked that the moratorium, if approved, not be applied to them because they have invested heavily in the project.

‘Considerable Expense’

The firm deserves the exception because “we have developed a concept that meets all existing laws, and we have done so at considerable expense,” said Ernest Skolnik, Heltzer’s director of acquisitions.

The moratorium is designed to give city planners time to devise new zoning regulations for the boulevard to head off any worsening of traffic congestion there.

The council could extend the high-rise ban a year.

Heltzer’s request for an exemption has stirred anxiety among homeowner groups that oppose the hotel and are pushing for the moratorium.

“The moratorium is weak enough,” said Gerald Silver, president of Homeowners of Encino. “We certainly hope the city doesn’t weaken it further by granting this exemption.”

Exclusion Termed Not Likely

Brad Rosenheim, deputy to Councilman Marvin Braude, has sought to assure residents that the hotel is not likely to be excluded from the moratorium.

City officials normally grant such exemptions only if a builder has a building permit when a moratorium goes into effect, he said.

Heltzer, however, has not completed plans or even selected an architect, Skolnik said.

Rosenheim said that , after plans are submitted to the city, the Building and Safety Department usually requires several months to check them before a permit is issued.

The moratorium contains a provision putting it into effect upon passage.

‘Swipes in the Air’

Heltzer officials are “kind of taking swipes in the air, seeking to grab on to some justification,” Rosenheim said. “Joe Blow might just as easily say he has been thinking about doing something with his property and should be exempted from any change in the law.”

Rosenheim said that several other developers have been discussing and, in several cases, drawing preliminary designs for major projects along the boulevard, but that only Heltzer had asked for an exemption.

The hotel is proposed on property occupied by Encino Bowl and several small shops.