Planners Deny Van Nuys Condo Zoning

A proposed condominium project that Van Nuys homeowners complained would have “stuck like a dagger” into the heart of their neighborhood was rejected Thursday by the Los Angeles Planning Commission.

City planners denied a zone change needed to build the 18-unit town house project on a .4-acre site midway between Sherman Way and Wyandotte Street. The property, which is half a block west of Kester Avenue, is now restricted to single-family houses.

Developers Leone Sanborn and Wendell Rylee of Newport Beach had hoped to build the $1.5-million project as the second phase of a similar-sized condominium complex they are building at 15015 Sherman Way.

The developers contended that town houses are appropriate for the area because condominiums and apartments already line Sherman Way. Next to the condominiums they are building are an 88-unit condominium complex and a 94-unit apartment house.

Neighbors Protest

But residents of single-family houses north of the Sanborn-Rylee property angrily opposed more condominiums at a hearing of the zoning board two months ago and in letters and a petition to city planners. Several homeowners characterized the long, narrow condominium site as a dagger aimed at their neighborhood.

Homeowners complained that the 65-foot-high town houses would destroy their neighborhood’s privacy, create parking problems and encourage further high-density encroachment toward Wyandotte.

They also charged that the project would interfere with a long-discussed city plan to extend Cantlay Street east from nearby Sepulveda Boulevard. Although the city has not acquired right of way for the street extension, its proposed route transects the Sanborn-Rylee property.

Commissioners voted 5 to 0 against the zone change after planning staff land-use administrator Arch D. Crouch urged them to preserve a buffer zone between the private residences and the row of apartments and town houses on Sherman Way.