Attempt to Trim Top Off Studio City Building Is Renewed

Angry opponents of a tall office building under construction next to a hillside neighborhood in Studio City took new steps Wednesday to shave the top two floors off the partly built structure.

A pair of homeowners went to court to renew demands that construction of the $4.3-million structure be halted for violating an 8-year-old agreement with residents.

At the same time, a Los Angeles city councilman ordered the city attorney’s office to investigate whether municipal officials can order a halt to the project.

The homeowners failed to win a temporary restraining order to block further construction of the nearly 100-foot-tall concrete-and-steel structure, south of the intersection of Ventura Boulevard and Fairway Avenue.

But City Councilman Mike Woo vowed to do what he can to halt work on what he characterized as “a monster.”

Woo labeled the project “ill-planned and incompatible” with the adjacent neighborhood of single-family homes. He said he hopes city lawyers can find a way to force workers to begin dismantling the top floors of the office building.

Two weeks ago, a resident living immediately south of the project unsuccessfully sought court intervention to halt the project. Homeowner Dean Jeffries told a Los Angeles Superior Court judge that the development violates a 1981 agreement limiting the height of any project on the site to 75 feet.

Judge Miriam Vogel ruled then that Jeffries had complained too late to stop the project, which developer Eitan Gonen testified was 70% complete.

On Wednesday, Superior Court Judge Eli Chernow again refused to halt the project. But he cleared the way for inspections that could “substantially impact the scope and magnitude of the project,” as the homeowners’ lawyer, Daniel Shapiro, put it.

Shapiro, the attorney who drafted the 1981 height-limiting agreement, said he may sue the city for not enforcing the agreement on behalf of his clients, project neighbors Charles Bernuth and Michael Minkow.

An aide to Woo criticized Shapiro for not properly filing the settlement with the city in 1981, however.

“He did not make sure the city was a party to the covenant” filed with Los Angeles County to specify a future 75-foot height on the office site, said Eric Roth, a deputy to Woo.

Roth alleged Wednesday that the agreement was apparently “written rather loosely.” The current developer has interpreted the wording to allow for a height bonus because of the slope of the hillside site, he said.

“That’s why there’s a monster project out there that nobody can stop,” Roth said late Wednesday.

Shapiro, who said he will return to court March 18 to seek a preliminary injunction to halt the project, disputed that contention. He said that the city was a party to the settlement and that the document’s wording will hold up in court.

Meanwhile, architect Jack Hollander said the project is legal. He declined to comment on Shapiro’s plans to inspect the hilly project’s foundation. He said he resents Woo calling the project a monstrosity.

City building and safety officials, who issued a construction permit specifying a three-story, 45-foot-tall building at the location in 1986, said the existing structure is within guidelines used at that time the permit was issued.