Nancy Nigrosh Backed the Plan to Enclose Lafayette Square--Until Her House Wound Up on the Wrong Side of the Line : On the Outside Looking In

It was charming, affordable, and only 10 minutes from her Beverly Hills office, but literary agent Nancy Nigrosh had something else in mind last year when she bought her two-story home in Lafayette Square.

“I had faith that the community was going to be enclosed and that my house would be part of it,” she said, referring to a plan, supported by a slim majority of homeowners, to close the south, east and west entrances to the area by blocking the ends of the streets to create cul-de-sacs.

In January, the Los Angeles City Council approved the controversial plan for the exclusive enclave of historic homes just west of Crenshaw Boulevard between Venice and Washington boulevards. Two weeks ago, workmen began pouring concrete for the cul-de-sacs, for which 237 homeowners will be assessed $40 annually for the next 10 years.

Injunction Sought

But when they got to her street, Nigrosh, an ardent supporter of the plan, was shocked to suddenly find that her house was on the outside of the enclosure.

“I’ve essentially been kicked out of my neighborhood,” she said.

Insisting that she was never told about a change in the plan to exclude her house on Wellington Road just north of Washington Boulevard from the enclosed area, Nigrosh has obtained a court order temporarily preventing completion of the cul-de-sac.

Her lawyer, Debra L. Bowen, is seeking an injunction to prevent the city from permanently closing off the street “in a manner that separates my client from the rest of her neighbors.” A Superior Court judge is to hear the matter Oct. 4.

“It’s inappropriate to send out a notice stating that a street barrier will be in one location and then change the location without notifying the people who are involved,” Bowen said.

Although a few homeowners on the fringes of the square who protested the enclosure of the neighborhood managed to get their properties excluded, Nigrosh’s case is unusual in that she is the only resident to be left out who wanted in.

And while the dispute is unlikely to affect enclosures under construction elsewhere in the neighborhood, it has revived a familiar argument in the community, which has been sharply divided over the plan for at least 10 years.

Besides the cul-de-sac on Wellington Road, others on Buckingham Road, Virginia Road and Victoria Avenue have closed off the neighborhood to busy Washington Boulevard, where gang graffiti is within eyeshot of half-million-dollar homes. The other enclosures are on St. Charles Place, at Crenshaw Boulevard and at Buckingham Road. Drivers are able to get into and out of the neighborhood only at Venice Boulevard.

“I would like to see the whole ordinance that created the mess overturned,” said Loraine Mirza, a Buckingham Road resident opposed to the plan. “It’s the craziest, most dangerous situation I’ve ever seen.”

But supporters argue that by isolating them from outside traffic, the enclosures will alleviate congestion, reduce crime, and increase everyone’s property values.

“This is going to be an entirely different community, for the better,” said Barbara Bourdreaux, president of the Lafayette Square Assn., which fought to enclose the neighborhood.

Attended Meetings

Nigrosh also belongs to the group and says she attended almost every meeting on the issue since moving to the neighborhood early last year.

“My property was always within the boundaries,” she said. “There was never an indication otherwise until the work crew showed up and one of my neighbors called and said, ‘Do you see where they’re putting that thing?’ ”

At her request, City Councilman Nate Holden ordered a temporary halt to the work, but he decided against intervening to have the enclosure on her street moved.

“I’ve tried to listen to everyone and remain objective on the whole question (of enclosures), but no matter what you do, not everyone is going to be pleased,” Holden said.

Holden, who bid on the house where Nigrosh lives at the time she bought it, said that although he had considered living in the neighborhood, “I’ve never cared one way or the other, personally, whether the community was enclosed.”

Originally, the cul-de-sac was to have been at Wellington Road and Washington Boulevard. City officials decided to move it to its present location after Nigrosh’s next-door neighbor and another resident--both of whose properties abut Washington Boulevard and are zoned for apartment use--protested.

A lawyer for Agnes Boston, the next-door neighbor, argued that placing the enclosure at the intersection would make it difficult to develop her property commercially and would diminish its fair market value “by hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

Deputy City Atty. Kenneth Cirlin said that as a result of those protests, the council decided in January--at a meeting Nigrosh said she did not attend--to place the enclosure inward on Wellington Road where the other neighbor’s property line joins the street.

But that point happens to be several feet on the wrong side of where Nigrosh’s driveway enters the street, as far as she is concerned, and she insists that she was never notified of the change.

“It may seem insignificant to some people, but the implications for my property’s future value are enormous,” she said. “I don’t think the city or anyone else should be allowed to do something like this without telling you, and expect to get away with it.”