Pierce College Neighbors Voice Demands : Trustees Told to Scrap Synagogue Lease

Woodland Hills homeowners, angered by development proposals for a piece of vacant Pierce College property, demanded Wednesday that the Los Angeles Community College District scrap an Encino Jewish congregation’s lease of the 17 1/2 acres.

The homeowners requested that district trustees “void the ground lease,” with the Shir Chadash congregation of Encino and seek community recommendations on how the open field can be used.

The board of trustees took no action on the request.

The congregation, which has agreed to pay the district $3 million over the 75-year lease period, wants to build a temple on part of the land and sublease a large portion of it for construction of 303 apartments for retirees. The homeowners favor construction of the temple but are against the retirement village.

In a prepared statement, Robert Gross, vice president of the Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization, sharply criticized the board of trustees for making the lease agreement. He said the district must correct “serious errors in judgment” by breaking the lease.

“We do not request that you take this action, we demand it,” Gross told a meeting of the trustees Wednesday night.

The property is on the east side of the West Valley Occupational Center, between Victory Boulevard and Calvert Street.

David Czmanske, the district’s contract coordinator, said the district “cannot legally back out” of the agreement. “The congregation would have every right to take the district to court” if the trustees broke the lease, Czmanske said.

The trustees have final say on how the property is developed, said Norman Schneider, spokesman for the board. “The lease clearly stipulates that we have to approve the plans,” he said.

Shir Chadash officials have not submitted their proposal for the property to the board for final approval, Schneider said.

The Encino reform congregation leased the property from the community college district in 1986. College officials said they decided to lease the land because it was separate from the main Pierce campus and the district needed the money.

Synagogue officials said they need only 5 1/2 acres of the site for the long-planned temple. By subleasing the excess land to Retirement Inns of America, the synagogue could raise money to help pay its lease payments, temple leaders said.

Retirement Inns, which has modified its plan in an attempt to please the residents, has proposed a $17-million project. Officials have pledged that the planned two- and three-story apartment buildings would be separated from the neighborhood by landscaping and other buffers.