College Trustees Affirm Temple Lease

The Los Angeles Community College District rejected demands of a Woodland Hills homeowner group Wednesday that it break its lease with an Encino Jewish congregation planning a temple and a retirement village on 17.5 acres of Pierce College property.

The Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization, which opposes the retirement village, asked the district’s board of trustees to break the 75-year lease it signed in 1986.

But the six board members present voted unanimously Wednesday to authorize the Shir Chadash congregation to apply to the city Planning Department for zoning changes to allow construction of the temple and retirement village. Board members stressed that they had no choice but to take the action under the terms of the lease. The congregation also plans to apply for a temple conditional-use permit.

Before the vote, David Czamanske, district contracts coordinator, advised commissioners not to break the lease.

Such action would ignore “the factual reality that a legal document now exists . . . that is enforceable,” he said.

The congregation can use the land for a temple and retirement village in exchange for about $3 million over the life of the lease, Czamanske said.

The lease allows the congregation to sublease part of the parcel to a developer.

The homeowner group opposes the retirement apartments but not the temple. Group officials have said the development would reduce open space and bring traffic congestion to area neighborhoods.

Robert Gross, of the homeowner association, said the group will continue to fight the retirement village.

He contended that the congregation’s zoning application to the city is invalid because the district did not authorize the application until Wednesday.

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