Picus Wants Houses, Not High-Rises, in Warner Ridge Project

Los Angeles City Councilwoman Joy Picus said Thursday she will seek to stop a controversial office project in Warner Ridge by recommending that the city change the zoning of the property from commercial to residential.

Picus said she will make the recommendation Tuesday to the council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee, arguing that single-family houses are more compatible with the surrounding Warner Ridge community than the planned $150-million high-rise office project.

“It’s the absolute right thing to do, and I’m going to push it very hard,” Picus told a luncheon group of Times editors and reporters. “This project has never been right for the area, and I’m going to fight it.”

The Los Angeles Planning Commission in May approved development of the nine-building office complex at the northeast corner of De Soto Avenue and Oxnard Street despite pleas by Picus and homeowner groups that single-family houses be built on the ridge instead.

Picus said she had already had discussions about the project with Councilman Hal Bernson, chairman of the Planning and Land Use Management Committee, but said she did not know how the committee will vote. She added that she did not know if the City Council, which has the final say, would vote against the project.

Jack Spound, developer of the project, said he was not surprised by Picus’ announcement. “It’s what I expected,” he said. He said he had the support of the surrounding community.

However, Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization Vice President Bob Gross said residents wanted the property rezoned residential. “There’s no way we want the office project, and Joy Picus is doing the right thing,” he said.

Planners had previously praised the 22 1/2-acre proposal as a “quality development” with built-in safeguards to keep it from causing traffic jams in the adjoining Warner Center area of the west San Fernando Valley.

But opponents who have spent almost three years fighting the development said the project would bring gridlock to nearby streets and the neighboring residential community. They complained that high-rises would turn Warner Ridge into a crowded urban area that would disrupt the residential atmosphere.