New Plan for Tail-O’-Cock Site Mollifies Project Foes

A dispute over a new shopping center at a landmark Studio City restaurant site apparently ended Wednesday as a developer promised homeowners he will cut the size of his project by 43% and keep it low-rise--and low-tech.

Builder Herbert M. Piken pledged that new plans for the site of the old Tail O’ the Cock restaurant will preserve a heavily used alley across the property and provide sufficient parking to keep cars of shoppers and employees off residential streets.

“If this doesn’t placate them, I give up,” Piken said of homeowners living near his planned $12-million retail complex. “I can’t imagine there’s anything left for them to complain about.”

The scaled-down plan drew at least grudging support from homeowners Wednesday. And, even if they still don’t want the project, there is probably little left that they can do to change it, both sides concur.

Piken faced a storm of protest in January when he announced that he intended to replace the 40-year-old restaurant with an 86,020-square-foot, three-story building.

Once Popular With Celebrities

The restaurant, once frequented by celebrities, was on 2.3 acres near the southwest corner of Ventura Boulevard and Coldwater Canyon Avenue near the Studio City-Sherman Oaks boundary.

Homeowners complained that the shopping center would wipe out the alley, tower over nearby single-family homes and clog adjoining streets with shoppers’ cars.

Piken backed away from his first plans a month ago when Studio City-area City Councilman Michael Woo warned that he might oppose the project because of the alley and the development’s potential conflict with a citywide neighborhood-protection ordinance. Enacted last fall, it restricts the height of commercial buildings next to homes.

Piken said the new plans call for a 49,396-square-foot, one- and two-story building.

Hailed as Victory

Woo said Wednesday that the new proposal is a victory for residents of Studio City and nearby Sherman Oaks.

“The community has been listened to,” he said after Piken outlined his new plans at a press conference in Woo’s City Hall office.

“The developer has been very flexible and very willing to negotiate,” said Woo in indicating that he likes the new version. “I think we’ve resolved all concerns that were raised. The major issues--the project’s height and bulk--seem to have been resolved.”

Piken said he has not settled on the exterior design of the project. Homeowners had opposed the previous design’s scaffold-like outdoor “space frame” roof and its overall modernistic marble-and-chrome look.

“I can tell you what it won’t be. It will not be high-tech or ultra-modern,” Piken said.

‘Will Be Less Glittery’

Project architect Donald Lynch said the new plans will have “a softer look, a more suburban look . . . it will be less glittery than before.”

The new proposal was applauded by Polly Ward, president of the Studio City Residents Assn.

“It looks good. It fits the community,” Ward said. “It sounds to us like it’s more in keeping with what the community expects. We’re going to recommend that our members approve it.”

Richard Close, president of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn., reserved judgment until his group discusses the plan at a meeting Wednesday night.

“It’s a better project, a step in the right direction,” Close said. “We’re still concerned about parking and traffic in the immediate area around the site, however.”

Larry Londre, who lives near the project site, said his neighbors are also still worried about traffic and parking problems from the development.

“But it looks a heck of a lot better than it did,” Londre said.