Group to Seek Appeal in Fighting Land Lease
Neighborhood leaders in Woodland Hills said Friday they will ask an appeals court to prevent Pierce College from leasing surplus farmland to a Jewish group.
Directors of the Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization voted 5-0 to appeal their case against the Los Angeles Community College District, said Robert Gross, a vice president of the 600-family group.
The association contends that the district’s 75-year lease of a 17 1/2-acre parcel near Victory Boulevard to the Encino-based Temple Shir Chadash violates laws that require a separation of church and state.
The 400-member congregation wants to build a temple on about five acres and sublease the rest of the site to a developer who would build houses.
On May 3 Superior Court Judge David P. Yaffe ruled that the lease was constitutional and dismissed the group’s lawsuit.
In a related matter, temple leaders are asking Yaffe to order the homeowners to pay them $58,000 in attorneys’ fees. The congregation’s lawyer had helped the college defend the lease. A hearing on that issue is scheduled for Thursday.
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