Westwood Homeowners, Developer Reach Agreement

The developer of a proposed 26-story office and shopping complex in Westwood said Thursday that the project, blocked earlier this month by a state Supreme Court ruling, can proceed because of an agreement with opponents to reduce its size by 20%.

Work on the project had been halted when the high court let stand an appellate ruling requiring city officials to conduct an environmental impact study before issuing a building permit for major developments.

Friends of Westwood, a homeowners group, had been fighting with the developer, Wilshire-Glendon Associates, for two years over its plans to build an $88-million complex on the former site of the Ship’s Coffee Shop at Wilshire Boulevard and Glendon Avenue.

Under a compromise reached Wednesday, Wilshire-Glendon, which had received a building permit before the Supreme Court ruling, will not have to conduct an environmental study, attorneys for both sides said.

Reduce Size of Project

Wilshire-Glendon agreed to reduce the size of the complex from 363,000 square feet to 296,170 square feet, provide more parking spaces and include a community room with the guarantee that those using it can receive free parking. The developer also agreed to follow original design plans and make every effort to include a small postal facility and a Ship’s Coffee Shop in the development.

Laura Lake, president of Friends of Westwood, said the group agreed to the compromise and dropped its lawsuit against Wilshire-Glendon and the City of Los Angeles because “we wanted the certainty of relief.”

It might have taken years in court to resolve the conflict, she said, and the homeowners group might have lost any control over plans for the development.

‘Protects All Cities’

And, she said, the group had succeeded in winning the Supreme Court approval of an appellate court decision that “will ensure that there is no more building by right. It protects all cities in California.”

In its ruling, the appellate court held that issuance of building permits was a “discretionary act” requiring environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act of 1970.

Kam Hekmet, a Wilshire-Glendon general partner, said his company sympathizes “with neighborhood groups about some of their environmental concerns. We met, explored possibilities and have agreed to modify our design to alleviate their concerns and possible future delays in building our proposed project.

“I just was talking with my architect in New York and it (the complex) is now in the redesign process,” Hekmet said.

Sandy Brown, a spokeswoman for Friends of Westwood, said the group is “very pleased we were able to work out this agreement. We would have liked to get more for the community, but this was a way we could assure more relief than the city was willing to grant for the people of Westwood.”