Builder Seeks Allies : Neighborhood Invited to Dinner, Pep Talk

Is the way to a neighborhood’s heart through its stomach?

A Woodland Hills developer hungering for support for his planned $150-million office project at the edge of Warner Center hopes so.

Builder Jack Spound invited a whole neighborhood to a fancy hotel dinner Tuesday night to ensure backing for his controversial project at a crucial Los Angeles Planning Commission hearing next week.

And Spound has asked all 850 members of the Woodland Hills Chamber of Commerce to stop by the hotel tonight for cocktails and hors d’oeuvres and to talk about supporting him at the hearing.

Spound said the Tuesday night dinner was a reward for residents of the Warner Hills condominium development who have backed his project, which he hopes to build in partnership with the Johnson Wax Development Corp.

But foes of the proposed development criticized his hospitality.

Residents of the condominium development next to the site where Spound wants to build his “Warner Ridge” high-rise project were treated to cocktails and veal with wild mushroom sauce and filet of salmon on the side in the grand ballroom of the Warner Center Marriott hotel.

About 60 residents were expected; 34 showed up.

After dessert, guests heard a pep talk about how crucial the neighborhood’s support will be when the Planning Commission conducts the 5 p.m. public hearing for Spound’s application at Parkman Junior High School, 20800 Burbank Blvd., Woodland Hills.

Homeowner Opposition

Other homeowners in the area oppose the project. Their objections have prompted City Councilwoman Joy Picus to try to rezone the site so that only single-family houses can be built there.

Spound contends that his proposed nine-structure development, which would include two seven-story buildings, is endorsed by the majority of homeowners who live near his 22-acre site at the northeast corner of De Soto Avenue and Oxnard Street.

Spound’s hospitality drew a hostile reaction from project opponents.

“I don’t consider it ethical,” said Robert Gross, a vice president of the Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization, whose neighborhood was not invited to the dinner.

“The wining and dining of selected local residents shows this developer will stop at nothing to achieve his goal,” Gross said. “I have a real problem with him trying to pit neighbor against neighbor.”

But Spound said outside the hotel ballroom Tuesday night: “This is just a way of thanking people who have supported us all along.”

On Wednesday, his public relations consultant said the dinner was held to build “team spirit and camaraderie” among supporters.

Sydney Wilson Knott said the dinner was aimed at boosting the self-confidence of supporters. She said some of them emerged from a previous public hearing with a bitter taste in their mouths after they were hooted down by project foes.

Gross denied that assertion.

“Everybody was very polite to the proponents of the project,” Gross said. “If they felt intimidated, I guess they had a guilty conscience. If I decided I wanted to support an unpopular thing in the community, I’d feel as intimidated as hell. It’s a natural reaction.”