High-Rise Planner, Woodland Hills Protesters to Meet

Los Angeles city officials took steps Friday to hammer out a compromise between Woodland Hills homeowners and a developer who hopes to build a group of high-rise office buildings at the edge of Warner Center.

City Councilwoman Joy Picus said city planners will conduct a three-hour workshop Oct. 27 to help resolve residents’ concerns over the $150-million, seven-building project.

The session will begin at 5 p.m. at Francis Parkman Junior High School, she said.

Details of the meeting were disclosed as petitions signed by 700 residents opposed to the project were delivered to Picus and other city officials. The signatures were collected this week in the Carleton Terrace area, a 25-year-old, 1,300-home neighborhood just east of the 22-acre-project site.

Picus said planners at the workshop will review what she called the homeowners’ “legitimate” worries about traffic problems from the project. She said developer Jack Spound will outline the project’s density and review its history.

Spound has applied for a zone change to allow construction of the project, which would include buildings up to seven stories high on a hill at the northeast corner of DeSoto Avenue and Oxnard Street.

Mitch Gutell, a homeowner and leader in the neighborhood protest, said the petitions specifically cited residents’ concerns about the size and location of the project.

“We’re against that type of development on that property,” Gutell said. “It’s not consistent with the character of the area. It’s closer to our homes than it is to Warner Center.”