Westwood Residents Oppose 3 High-Rises

Westwood residents this week protested three Wilshire Boulevard high-rise projects that they said would increase traffic congestion and threaten the ambiance of Westwood Village.

Residents voiced their opposition to a 14-story hotel at a hearing on Monday and on Tuesday they unsuccessfully appealed two high-rise office projects.

At the two-hour hearing Monday in the West Los Angeles Municipal Building, residents argued against Murdock Development Co.’s plans for a 215-room luxury hotel on Wilshire between Gayley and Veteran avenues.

An analysis of the controversial project will be prepared by the hearing officer and submitted to the city Planning Commission, which will discuss the project at its meeting May 22 at the Van Nuys Woman’s Club.

Appeals Denied

At a 3 1/2-hour hearing on Tuesday, residents asked the city Board of Zoning Appeals to rule against two office buildings planned at Wilshire and Glendon Avenue. The board denied the appeals, but residents plan to continue the fight in court, spokeswoman Sandy Brown said Wednesday.

Brown said that Friends of Westwood Inc. has filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court against the city of Los Angeles and Wilshire Glendon Associates Ltd. challenging plans for a 24-story office project on the former Ship’s restaurant site at the northeast corner of Wilshire and Glendon.

She said the group also will file suit against a 16-story office complex to be built across the street on the southeast corner of Wilshire and Glendon, the site of a savings and loan institution.

Brown said members were not optimistic about winning their zoning appeals Tuesday, but pursued the cases in an effort to exhaust all available administrative remedies.

Opposed to Density

Westwood Homeowners Assn. and Holmby Westwood Homeowners Assn. joined the Friends of Westwood in fighting the office and hotel developments. Residents are opposed to increasing the density of development in Westwood Village, said Joyce Foster of the Westwood Homeowners Assn.

She said the group opposes Murdock’s proposed hotel because it involves a substantially larger building than allowed under current zoning. “The corner of Glendon and Wilshire is so heavily impacted with traffic that to put a 14-story hotel there is unthinkable,” she said.

Foster said the Westwood homeowner group is not opposed to all hotels, but will fight any projects that increase the density of Westwood development.

The group could support “a quality, three-story hotel. . . . They have them in Beverly Hills,” she said.