Michael Jackson Lowers His Zoo’s Profile

As such matters go, case ZA 87-0413-ZV was something less than a thriller.

Still, the hearing Monday before Jack C. Sedwick, associate zoning administrator, will fuel discussion among thousands of Michael Jackson’s more ardent fans and dozens of his somewhat less ardent Encino neighbors.

Without explanation, the rock giant withdrew his request for two zoning variances. One would have paved the way for the addition of a giraffe to his backyard zoo. The other requested he be allowed to keep his 17-foot-high backyard fence.

Withdrawing the latter request means that Jackson agrees to trim the fence to six feet, the maximum allowable height.

Robert M. Wilkinson, a former Los Angeles City Council member who described himself as Jackson’s “legislative advocate,” would not specify the reasoning behind either decision.

“I presented the options last night to Mr. Jackson’s representatives,” he said, “and I got a call this morning to withdraw the applications.” Whatever the reasons, residents of the pleasant but not palatial Encino neighborhood were pleased.

“It’s excellent they did it this way,” said Howard Davine, an attorney whose backyard adjoins Jackson’s. “A confrontive hearing is not what we wanted.”

Of course, the neighbors didn’t particularly want a nearby menagerie, either.

“During the hot summer months, it becomes very difficult for us to enjoy our property,” Davine said. “Those animals, by their nature, emit a certain odor.”

Jackson holds permits from the city Department of Animal Regulation to keep a chimpanzee, a llama and a deer behind the walls of his gated estate on Hayvenhurst Avenue. But the department probably would have rejected his bid for a giraffe, said Lt. Marshall Vernon of the animal regulation department. “A backyard in the City of Los Angeles is just not a place for a giraffe,” Vernon said. “He’d need 700 square feet of yard and a shed 18 feet high. We’d be remiss in allowing it.”

Last year, state game officials removed a 6-month-old giraffe from the yard, placing it in a state-licensed holding facility until Jackson acquired the permits necessary to keep it.

The offending 17-foot fence, a chain-link structure covered with a green burlap-like material, caused Davine to complain: “My backyard felt like I was in the middle of Fenway Park.”

But the neighbors’ biggest complaint about the superstar is his superstardom.

“Those fans!” said Sandy Brown. “We have people who practically live there in front of his house. They’ll sit in the bushes for two and three days at a time. They’ll bring their duffel bags and their sleeping bags.

“It’s dangerous--some of these people are really crazy. You don’t know what kind of people your kids will meet walking down the street . . . There was a rumor Michael would move to Malibu, and I wish he had.”

Another neighbor, Patty Smith, said she has called police to help drive off Jackson fans who stand rooted on Hayvenhurst for days at a time.

Kathy Lewis, a spokeswoman for the Encino Property Owners Assn., echoed the neighbors’ perceptions. “You see street people shuffling through the garbage cans,” she said, “and accosting you on the street.”

“But we love having Michael Jackson in the community,” she added. “He’s good, imagewise. He’s a terrific entertainer, a superstar.”