Homeowners, Councilman Forge Proposal : Ventura Blvd. Design Pact Reached

Design and landscaping controls and a ban on billboards are among the regulations that could be imposed on Ventura Boulevard development under an agreement hammered out Thursday night.

Los Angeles City Councilman Joel Wachs agreed after a sometimes acrimonious meeting with leaders of five homeowner groups to introduce a motion in the council to draft such rules.

Homeowner spokesmen in Wachs’ southeast San Fernando Valley district have been angry since learning a month ago that the councilman favored putting off consideration of such controls on aesthetics for a year or more.

Wachs and fellow council members Marvin Braude and Joy Picus decided in December that an upcoming zoning revision for the prosperous thoroughfare would not include design or landscaping controls or restrictions on billboards and other signs.

Delayed Advised

Action on those issues should be put off until after the council enacts new controls on traffic, parking and building size, they said.

City officials estimated that would take at least a year.

Despite repeated denials by the three council members, leaders of the increasingly aggressive homeowner associations said they feared that consideration of the more controversial controls on aesthetics would be put off even longer.

“We also worry they might never be taken up,” said Richard Close, president of the Sherman Oaks Homeowner Assn., an organizer of Thursday’s meeting.

The five groups, represented by 10 leaders, that met with Wachs were among those that successfully lobbied the council in October for a one-year moratorium on high-rise development along the traffic-clogged boulevard from Studio City to Woodland Hills.

The moratorium prohibits buildings taller than three stories, restricts the floor area of buildings to 1 1/2 times the lot size and stiffens parking requirements.

New Guidelines

The moratorium, which can be extended another year by council vote, was designed to give city planners time to prepare new development guidelines for all commercially zoned property along the boulevard.

Under the agreement worked out Thursday, the controls on aesthetics will be drafted simultaneously with traffic, building height and parking rules.

Wachs expressed confidence that Braude and Picus would support the expanded approach.

In an interview earlier Thursday, Braude, who introduced the moratorium motion before the council, said that Wachs’ conflict with East Valley homeowner associations has held up hiring a consultant to begin work on the guidelines for nearly a month.

“I’d like to bring this matter up tomorrow morning with the council,” said Braude, who represents Tarzana, Encino and parts of Woodland Hills and Sherman Oaks. “I hope that Wachs and his constituents can resolve their differences so we can get moving.”

Consultant’s Hiring Urged

Braude said that, because of time already lost in wrangling, the best strategy now is to hire an outside consultant to recommend rules on building height and size and parking requirements.

“Then we can have a citizens committee at the same time work with city planners on these other issues,” he said.

Braude said those who are complaining to Wachs are “misguided” because “there is no one I know of, including Councilman Wachs, who is not resolved to take up all these issues during the moratorium period.”

Participating in the meeting with Wachs Thursday evening were leaders of Close’s group and the Studio City Residents Assn., the North Hollywood Homeowners Assn., the Van Nuys Homeowners Assn. and the Briarcliff Homeowners, which represents homeowners in a Studio City neighborhood.