Protest Loss of Woodland Hills View : Neighbors Fight High-Rise Project

Woodland Hills homeowners rallied Monday against a plan to build a row of high-rise office buildings on a ridge next to their 25-year-old neighborhood.

A group of residents told a Los Angeles planning department hearing officer that the proposed $150-million, seven-building project would clog streets and ruin the view from their hillside homes.

Buildings up to seven stories high are planned by the Beverly Hills-based Spound Co. and Johnson Wax Development Co. of Racine, Wis., for a 22-acre site at the northeast corner of DeSoto Avenue and Oxnard Street, on the eastern edge of Warner Center.

At issue is a request by the developers for a change in zoning from residential and agricultural to high-density commercial.

City officials have been studying the proposal since last year, when Councilwoman Joy Picus formed a six-member citizens committee to review it.

The advisory panel endorsed the project after the developers promised that the buildings would be heavily landscaped and hidden by a hill from nearby Los Angeles Pierce College.

But a group of more than 75 homeowners charged at Monday’s two-hour Van Nuys hearing that their 1,300-family neighborhood south of Pierce College between DeSoto and Winnetka avenues was not adequately represented on the committee.

Besides, the neighborhood was not told by the city of the zone-change application until late last week, resident Shirley Blessing said.

The Warner Center master plan “has been changed back and forth, tossed about like a football depending on the influence and backing of political and business,” Blessing said.

The homeowners urged hearing officer Lothar von Schoenborn to reject the zone change to ensure that DeSoto Avenue remains a buffer between their homes and Warner Center.

Said B. B. Maynard, whose home would look down on a 2,500-car parking structure planned for the project: “What difference does it make that the cattle at Pierce can’t see the tall buildings? I can.”

The project was supported by Pierce College President David Wolf and by Woodland Hills resident Rob Voushon, both of whom served on Picus’ committee.

Developer Jack Spound, who pledged the high-rises will be “a very mild development, something the community will be proud of,” told homeowners during the session that he will meet with them to try to allay their fears.

Von Schoenborn said he will submit his recommendation on the zone change to the city planning commission Nov. 6.