Project Hearing : Warner Ridge Backers, Foes Trade Barbs

Alternately booing and cheering one another, about 650 people debated Monday night whether Los Angeles city officials should allow construction of a $150-million high-rise office complex next to a Woodland Hills neighborhood.

Opponents of the proposed Warner Ridge project told a city planning commission hearing officer that construction of the nine-building project would smother their neighborhood and add to traffic gridlock in the western San Fernando Valley.

But supporters of the 22-acre development said it would enhance the quality of life in the West Valley by adding valuable jobs while serving as a tasteful buffer between a Warner Center industrial area and nearby homes.

The two sides traded jeers, characterizing each other as no-growth “rabble-rousers” and as “yuppie carpetbaggers” as city hearing officer Michael Davies began listening to more than 200 speakers who signed up to testify.

Davies is expected to issue a recommendation to the Planning Commission on the project within three weeks. Eventually, the issue will be considered by the entire City Council.

Councilwoman Joy Picus, who represents the project area at the northeast corner of De Soto Avenue and Oxnard Street, urged Davies to approve single-family homes for the site.

De Soto Avenue “should be the natural boundary line between Warner Center and the surrounding residential neighborhoods,” Picus said.

Most of those who jammed the hearing at Parkman Junior High School auditorium agreed.

“It’s outrageous to propose a such a complex in an area that is already overdeveloped,” testified H. Miles Raskoff, a Woodland Hills resident since 1957.

Said Edith Roth, a 26-year resident of Woodland Hills: “It’s illogical. . . . It will degrade our entire community.”

The evening’s heaviest applause went to Woodland Hills resident Ken Doane, who is deaf. He made an emotional appeal in sign language that was translated by an interpreter. Doane pleaded for “an intelligent, sensitive and human-scaled” project. He suggested that the developer “has no right to expect us to bail him out just because he may have paid too much for that land.”

But developer Jack Spound presented heavy support for his project, which has been the subject of debate in Woodland Hills for 28 months. Spound, who raised eyebrows last week when he hosted a fancy dinner and a separate hotel cocktail party for supporters, fielded about 200 people sporting large “I support Warner Ridge” buttons.

“I genuinely feel the developers of Warner Ridge are trying to make this a better neighborhood,” said William McCary, who lives in a nearby condominium complex. He asked Davies to “put more weight on my view than on someone’s who doesn’t live in as close proximity.”

Supporter Madeline Schwartz, a 25-year Woodland Hills resident, said that she remembers when “we had to drive to North Hollywood to buy a pair of Levi’s. I was happy when they brought me shopping and office buildings.”

Warner Center worker Bruce Arden of Glendale said he is looking for a home in Woodland Hills. But he testified that he would not buy an expensive home overlooking Warner Center’s industrial rooftops if houses were required for Warner Ridge instead of offices.