Developers Offer Redesign If Project Can Be 6 Stories

The developers of a proposed three-story shopping center, office and theater complex near a residential area in Encino offered Tuesday to redesign the project to be farther from neighboring houses if it could be built three stories taller.

Benjamin M. Reznik, attorney for developers David Roberts and Jona Goldrich, said the six-story configuration would place the project 115 feet from an adjoining residential neighborhood on Moorpark Avenue. The three-story configuration would place the project 15 feet away, he said.

The size of the project, which would be on Ventura Boulevard between Hayvenhurst and Libbit avenues, would remain at 375,000 square feet in either configuration, Reznik said.

Reznik made the announcement to members of the Encino Property Owners Assn. Some members of the group expressed opposition to the project and said they were concerned about the impact on traffic and noise in the area.

The $116-million project would include a six-screen cinema with 1,900 underground parking spaces.

Even though the project conforms to the city plan for Encino and applicable zoning laws, the developers have been ordered to prepare an environmental impact report, which could take up to nine months, Los Angeles city officials said.

Cindy Miscikowski, a spokeswoman for Los Angeles City Councilman Marvin Braude, who represents the area where the project is located, said the developers might also be ordered to spend “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in road improvements, including street widening.