Woodland Hills Residents Gain Time in Bid to Halt High-Rise

Woodland Hills homeowners fighting a proposed $150-million high-rise office project next to their neighborhood were given extra time Friday to organize their opposition.

A Los Angeles city hearing officer agreed to delay action on a zone change for the 22-acre project site on the northeast corner of DeSoto Avenue and Oxnard Street until more environmental information can be obtained.

Hearing officer Lothar von Schoenborn had been expected make a recommendation on a rezoning request for the development site in time for city planning commissioners to vote on the matter Nov. 20.

But the delay was requested by West San Fernando Valley City Councilwoman Joy Picus after residents complained that they did not have a chance to review the development plans before Von Schoenborn conducted a zone-change hearing Oct. 6.

Since then, homeowners in the 1,300-home neighborhood east of the project site have met twice with developer Jack Spound to discuss his proposed seven-building complex. The most recent session Monday night drew 200 residents.

Residents Tell Fears

Residents contend that the offices would clog their 25-year-old community with traffic and intrude on the view from many of their hillside homes.

Jim Dawson, an aide to Picus who specializes in planning issues, said the city will take up to 60 days to gather new information to add to the project’s environmental impact report.

“This will give time for the developer, the community and our office to meet and mitigate concerns,” Dawson said Friday. “Everybody will have time to try to get a resolution to this.”

Dawson said it is uncertain whether another public hearing will be conducted before the planning commission votes on Spound’s zone-change request in January or February. But he said officials will “closely” study written comments from homeowners before voting.

After that, a public hearing will be held by City Council members when they review the commission’s action on the application, Dawson said.

Mailing Planned

Officials said Von Schoenborn planned to mail letters to homeowners Friday to explain the turn of events.

Neighborhood leaders said they also planned to distribute their own newsletter this weekend within the hilly, one-square-mile residential area north of the Ventura Freeway between Winnetka and DeSoto avenues.

“The project has essentially ground to a complete stop,” said one of them, Bob Gross. “It’s going to give the community time to regroup and evaluate the next step.”

Gross said residents will focus on traffic problems they feel could paralyze their neighborhood if Spound’s project is built and an estimated 3,000 persons come to work in buildings that would range in height to seven stories.

Spound, whose partner in the project is the Johnson Wax Development Co. of Racine, Wis., needs a high-density commercial zoning designation to build the project.

The ridge-top site, which overlooks Warner Center and once was the site of a ranch house owned by movie mogul Harry Warner, is now zoned for residential and agricultural use.