‘BEL-AIR EAST’ : Lake Hollywood Residents Battle to Preserve Life Style

Residents who have long enjoyed the glimmering lights of Los Angeles from their expensive hillside homes above the Hollywood Reservoir expressed fears Friday that urban problems are intruding on their rustic life styles.

First, cross-town traffic began streaming along their winding roads after a novelty book depicting the best shortcuts through Los Angeles went on sale at local bookstores.

‘Another Laurel Canyon’

“It’s getting to be like another Laurel Canyon around here,” grumbled resident James Goode, who lives directly beneath the famed Hollywood sign.

Then, neighbors found that their pristine hillsides were attracting dumping.

“There are couches being dumped in our neighborhood,” complained Dan Riffe, president of the Lake Hollywood Homeowners Assn.

Now, a Los Angeles developer backed by $10-million from private Japanese investors has decided to bulldoze his way up their hill and build luxury homes on the largest and last remaining open canyon area in their hillside enclave.

Developer Thomas P. Sullivan plans to construct 64 hilltop mansions on 164 acres north of the Hollywood Reservoir, also known as Lake Hollywood. It is an area where the reservoir’s blue fingers reach into brush and tree-covered canyons crossed by dirt paths that have long been a favorite site for joggers and bicyclists.

Early plans show custom-built Mediterranean-style mansions, beginning at 4,000 square feet of floor space, will sell for between $2.5 million and $3 million. Construction is not expected to begin for another year.

“They are going to have the best views in the city,” said Sullivan, president of Jefferson Development Corp. “It’s going to be Bel-Air East.”

But because so many palm trees will be planted along the hillsides, the developer said it would be better known as “Palm-Air.”

In a meeting with Sullivan on Thursday night, about 40 residents who are fiercely protective of their neighborhood were not interested in details such as the name of the project. They wanted to make demands.

The residents are vowing to erect a gate to control traffic through the area and to hire additional private patrols. They also plan to continue meeting with the developer, hoping to win road improvements and more neighborhood parks in exchange for community support for the project, which must win approval by City Hall and pass environmental reviews.

“We have to join the new process in L.A. and start working with developers,” Riffe said. “We’re slowly finding out we have the same problems as everyone else.”

Their call to protect the Hollywood Hills echoes cries of other homeowner associations throughout Los Angeles that are increasingly pushing developers to pay for neighborhood improvements to compensate for the increased density, traffic and noise created by construction.

The 1,500 residents who live perched on hillsides surrounding most of the Hollywood Reservoir, are represented by three homeowners associations--Hollywood Knolls, Lake Hollywood Estates and Hollywoodland.

The groups have not yet endorsed or opposed the 64-mansion project, opting to try to first work out their concerns with the developer. They are more worried about the effects the massive project will have on what has long been a peaceful community.

Their big trouble is traffic--not from their own cars, residents say, but from “outsiders.”

Traffic dramatically increased about a year ago after publication of book that listed a string of winding, narrow streets that could be used as a escape path from the clogged Hollywood Freeway through the Cahuenga Pass.

“They don’t care about the neighborhood,” said Joe Nassour of the Lake Hollywood group. “These are frustrated commuters trying to save minutes, seconds.”

The substandard, narrow roads with numerous hairpin turns were designed in the 1920s and 1930s and cannot safely handle commuter traffic, said Horace Tramel, a senior city planner for the area.

Residents fear that the proposed development will further exacerbate the problem because the developer plans to build a new mile-long road off Cahuenga Boulevard into the hills.

The homeowner coalition wants Sullivan to help pay to install gates on the roads.

Groups leaders say they are just beginning to search for ways to close off their neighborhoods to outside traffic. Tramel said obtaining city permission to do so is a long and costly process that could entail exorbitant insurance and street maintenance costs for the homeowners.

“We think we have enough political clout to get it done,” said Howard Cohen, a resident and developer himself who in 1960 built the 133 houses that make up Lake Hollywood Estates. Other homeowners, however, are not so sure that cordoning off their neighborhood is the right action because the reservoir draws throngs of joggers, walkers and bicyclists.

“I guess you can try and buy anything, but I’m not sure about gates,” said Neil Howard, an attorney who lives on busy Tahoe Drive with his wife and two daughters.

Some residents are pushing the developer to create another thoroughfare through the proposed “Palm-Air” development to share the traffic burden, a suggestion that Sullivan said is too costly.

To appease the immediate complaints of homeowners, Sullivan has promised to clean up one neighborhood blight--dumping along canyon roads.

“We know we can’t stop development, but we can at least get things cleaned up” said Patty Howard. “Although it is going to be kind of sad when we lose the hillside.”