Westwood Residents Lose Effort to Stop Wilshire High-Rise

Westwood residents fighting a proposed 27-story high-rise on Wilshire Boulevard had hoped that the community’s new design-review ordinance would give them the muscle to lop off five or six stories from the $75-million condominium project.

What they got Thursday was a resounding “no” from the city’s Planning Commission and a scolding from Dan Garcia, the panel’s president. Garcia described their effort as a “transparent attempt” to get around city approvals for the project.

“I don’t think it is well-taken as a result,” Garcia said.

Friends of Westwood, a communitywide homeowners organization, and the Westholme Homeowners Assn., which represents residents of a 16-story condominium building next to the proposed high-rise, had asked the Planning Commission to disapprove the project because they said it violates the design-review ordinance. In particular, they said, the building would cast shadows on a neighboring property for periods longer than allowed in the ordinance, which was passed in January.

First Challenge

The two groups were appealing a decision by Kenneth C. Topping, the city’s planning director, to allow the project to go forward. It was the first challenge to the Westwood design-review ordinance, which residents hoped would help them scale back several proposed Wilshire condominium high-rises that the City Council has exempted from the boulevard’s 6-story height limit.

The issue had been referred to Topping by the Westwood Design Review Board, a 7-member citizens’ panel that advises Topping on architectural and aesthetic considerations. The board voted to make no recommendation since it was unable to agree whether the project meets the design-review ordinance criteria.

In a report to the director, three board members said the 27-story structure at 10580 Wilshire Blvd. “interacts well” with the other high-rises on the boulevard and predicted that a height reduction “would not improve the design or quality of massing or its interaction with adjacent buildings.” The three opponents, by contrast, described the building as too tall and “too massive” for the neighborhood. Those members concluded that the building would “dramatically add to the sense of having a skyscraper corridor in a residential area.”

As a compromise, some residents and Westwood-area Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky had proposed limiting the project to 22 stories, the height of its tallest neighbor. Ginny Kruger, Yaroslavsky’s planning deputy, recommended that solution at the Planning Commission’s hearing Thursday.

Refuse Reduction

But representatives for the developer, Cal Fed Enterprises, have opposed any proposals to reduce the building’s height. Allan J. Abshez, an attorney for the developers, told the Planning Commission that a shorter building would not address residents’ concerns about shadows. If Cal Fed were to build a a shorter building, he said, it would build a wider building, which would also cast shadows.

Lee Danielson, vice president of Cal Fed, said in an interview that he will not build a smaller project because he needs all 97 units--which will sell from $600,000 to $4 million each--for the building to make economic sense.

“There would be no reason to build the project,” Danielson said of suggestions to scale back the building. “The capitalist motive for building it would go out the window.”

At its Thursday hearing, the Planning Commission never discussed the proposal to scale back the project. Garcia said the commission decided in 1979, after a lengthy public hearing, that tall, slender buildings were less offensive in terms of shadows than shorter, more massive buildings.

Shadow Interpretation

The commission also supported Topping’s interpretation of the design-review ordinance’s regulations regarding shadows. The homeowners had argued that any shadow cast by a new project, even if it overlaps the shadow of an existing building, should be considered the shadow of the new project. Topping said new projects should not be penalized for shadows that duplicate existing shadows.

Under the ordinance, new projects cannot create shadows for more than two hours on one-third of any residential structure. A solar analysis of the Cal Fed project shows that it shadows a neighboring building for four hours, but for two of those hours it overlaps an existing shadow.

Opponents of the Cal Fed project, while discouraged by the commission’s vote, said they will appeal it to the City Council.

“They are just jamming these buildings in,” said Irwin Russell, president of the Westholme homeowners group. “It is getting to look like 3rd Avenue in New York.”

“THE WILSHIRE”CONDOMINIUM PROJECT Address: 10580 Wilshire Boulevard (between Thayer and Westholme avenues)

Height: 27 stories (344 feet)

Units: 97

Parking: 245 spaces (three subterranean parking levels)

Floor Area: 319,049 square feet

Developer: Cal Fed Enterprises