Woodland Hills High-Rise Foes Boo Picus Over Neutral Stance

Woodland Hills residents booed City Councilwoman Joy Picus on Thursday night when she said she had not decided whether to oppose or support a controversial high-rise office project near their homes.

Picus said she will take a position on the proposed 7-story, $150-million “Warner Ridge” project when it comes before city officials for review later this year.

“My neutral stance gives me room to negotiate,” Picus told about 150 people at Parkman Junior High School, a block from the 22-acre office site at De Soto Avenue and Oxnard Street.

“At this time, it’s the most sensible position for me to have,” she said.

Homeowners said they had hoped that Picus would support their opposition to the project when city planners begin reviewing an environmental impact report for the proposed office project in several months.

“Why not oppose this horrendous, horrendous project now and then work out some other development plan for the site later?” asked homeowner Paul Bornstein.

Petitions Given to Picus

Leaders of the Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization presented Picus with a stack of petitions, tied with a large red bow, which they said contained 5,000 signatures of residents opposed to the Warner Ridge project.

“We’re very disappointed,” said Robert Gross, vice president of the group. He said residents will continue to demand that Los Angeles city officials restrict development on the ridge to single-family homes that will fit in with the existing adjacent neighborhood.

Picus told the crowd that no developer has stepped forward with a proposal to build low-density residential housing on the site. Homeowners retorted that the city should allow Warner Ridge to remain undeveloped, in that case.

Ridge developer Jack Spound could not be reached for comment after the meeting.

Homeowners charged that Picus’ announcement Thursday night was not the first time that she has let them down.

Residents of the 1,300-home Carlton Terrace subdivision immediately east of the Warner Ridge site have charged that a citizens advisory committee, appointed by Picus in 1985 to review the property, did not include true representation from the 25-year-old neighborhood.

In July, 1986, the six-member committee unanimously endorsed changes to the Woodland Hills-area master plan that cleared the way for the office project.

Committee members said they approved the project after the developers promised that the buildings would be heavily landscaped and hidden by hills from next-door Pierce College.

The next month--August, 1986--the partnership that owns the 22-acre parcel filed for a zoning change with the city to start their project.

Homeowners contend that they did not learn details of the proposed high-rise project until Oct. 6, 1986, when the city conducted a public hearing to review the developers’ request to change the site’s zoning from agricultural and residential to high-density commercial.

About 75 residents attended that zoning hearing. They angrily complained that their neighborhood had not been adequately represented on Picus’ committee. Their outcry triggered a formal city review process that continues today.

Since then, both sides in the dispute have worked to prove that they have won the hearts and minds of the community.

Neighborhood residents opposed to the project quickly connected with the larger and more influential Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization, which until 22 months ago only represented residents living south of Ventura Boulevard in City Councilman Marvin Braude’s district.

Pressure on Pierce College

Opponents argue that the high-rise project would extend commercial development for the first time out of the physical boundaries of Warner Center.

The result, they maintain, would be increased traffic in their neighborhood. They also say that some homeowners living close to the high-rises would lose their views and that there would be unnecessary pressure on Pierce College to develop its farmland.

For their part, Spound and his partners have spent weekends walking through the Carlton Terrace neighborhood explaining their side.

They have also produced occasional mailers labeled “Let’s Talk” that have sought to assure homeowners that traffic will be funneled away from homes. Residents have also been promised that the high-rises will be hidden from their view by landscaping and tall earthen berms.