Council Rejects Warner Ridge High-Rise Plan : Zoning: The vote is a victory for Councilwoman Joy Picus and a Woodland Hills homeowners group. The developer threatens to sue.

A bitter five-year dispute over the construction of high-rise office buildings in the Warner Ridge area of Woodland Hills drew to a close Wednesday when the Los Angeles City Council rejected the proposal and tentatively approved single-family houses for the site.

The vote was a victory for Councilwoman Joy Picus and the influential Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization, which has vehemently opposed the Spound Co.’s $150-million proposal to build seven office buildings--three to seven stories--on 21 1/2 acres next to a residential neighborhood.

Albert Spound, president of the Spound Co., decried the decision as “a clear case of land taking” and vowed that if Mayor Tom Bradley does not veto the measure his company will sue the city.

Bradley spokesman Bill Chandler said the mayor “is watching the case very closely, but he will not make a decision until the final action comes to his desk.”

The 10-2 vote was the minimum Picus needed to reject the development proposal. But 12 votes were needed for the immediate adoption of the zoning ordinance calling for single-family houses on the property. She now needs 10 votes to approve the measure a second time next Wednesday.

“The council has firmly and decisively turned down commercial development on Warner Ridge,” Picus said after the council meeting, adding that she was confident she will win approval for the zoning ordinance that would allow for 108 luxury houses.

Nearly 300 people--about evenly divided between supporters and opponents--filled the council chambers. Before the vote, Picus scurried from one council member to another making her last pitch. Applause resounded in council chambers after the vote, and Picus left her seat to exchange hugs and handshakes with her supporters.

The volatile issue had been the focus of intense City Hall lobbying for several weeks, pitting the political influence of 13-year council veteran Picus against the polished presentation of Spound lobbyists. Councilman Joel Wachs called the Spound effort “one of the best presentations” he had ever seen.

“There is no right and wrong on this issue,” said Wachs, who supported Picus. “But I respect Joy’s judgment enormously.”

The vote overturned an earlier Planning Commission decision to approve the commercial development. Then, last month, the City Council’s land-use committee voted 3 to 1 against the Planning Commission’s decision.

Councilman Robert Farrell, who was a dissenter on the committee vote, and Councilwoman Joan Milke-Flores voted in favor of the commercial development proposal Tuesday, saying they were reluctant to overturn a decision made by the Planning Commission.

The Warner Ridge commercial development proposal has been one of the most hotly debated topics in the west San Fernando Valley for years, with homeowners facing off against homeowners and evoking bitter feelings among neighbors.

Spound garnered the support of a large number of nearby residents as well as Pierce College officials. He argued before the council that he has “the constitutional right” to build his 810,000-square-foot office development because the community plan designated an office center project on the land.

“We spent five years and millions of dollars in capital expenditures on planning” based on the community plan. He said a council prohibition on his development is “as if someone stole our property.”

The zoning on the land designates only agricultural and housing uses. Spound had to first win approval for a new zone designation that would clear the way for office buildings.

His company purchased the brush-covered, gently sloping hill on the northeast corner of De Soto Avenue and Oxnard Street in 1985. He said the luxury single-family houses on the site would be unsalable because the site is next to a busy thoroughfare.

Pierce College President Dan Means also voiced his opposition to residential development on that property at the meeting. Means had said that new homeowners would most likely complain about odors and noise from the nearby school’s farm.

Picus argued Tuesday that the commercial development is an unwarranted intrusion into a neighborhood of single-family houses. She and homeowners said the project would exacerbate an already intolerable traffic problem in Warner Center.

Picus sided with what she has said has been overwhelming community opposition to the high-rise proposal.

In making her plea to the council, Picus did not mention a point she raised late last week that one of Spound’s partners does business in South Africa. She has called the issue a minor point in the development debate, but “a piece of information for my colleagues to have.”

Picus had circulated a letter to council members Friday saying that the involvement of Johnson Wax Development had to be considered because of the council’s longstanding opposition to South Africa’s apartheid regime.

The Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization had staunchly opposed the project and lobbied council members. The group had said the project did not belong in a community dominated by residences and would bring gridlock and pollution to the area.

“We’re overwhelmingly gratified that the council was attentive to the community,” Shirley Blessing, treasurer of the homeowner group, said after the meeting.

Several Woodland Hills residents attending the meeting said the group did not represent their interests. They said they resented the homeowners organization.

“I don’t understand why the council and Joy Picus would listen to a group of uninformed, obnoxious homeowners,” said Thomas Friedman, who added that he and 250 families living in the nearby community of Carlton Terrace supported the project. “They just listened to them because they’re loud.”

Homeowners who supported the commercial development said they believed it would be a high-quality project that would buffer their residences from busy Warner Center.

Friedman added that Picus had told him and several other homeowners last year that she supported Spound’s project. “Joy just blatantly lied to the council in saying she never supported the proposal,” he said. “Now the city has just bought themselves one beautiful lawsuit.”

Chronology

* JANUARY, 1985--Developer Jack Spound purchases 21 1/2 acres for Warner Ridge. Spound proposes to build 950,000 square feet of offices in a cluster of buildings of up to eight stories next to Pierce College.

* NOVEMBER, 1988--Councilwoman Joy Picus announces her opposition to the high-rise office project. She says she will seek to have the property rezoned for single-family houses.

* APRIL, 1989--Two hearing examiners for the Planning Commission recommend that the office project be built.

* MAY, 1989--The Los Angeles Planning Commission approves Spound’s project in a 3-2 vote. They praise the plan as a “quality development” that has built-in safeguards to keep it from causing traffic jams in Warner Center.

* DECEMBER, 1989--The City Council land-use committee votes 2 to 1 to reject Spound’s project and to rezone the land for houses.

* JAN. 24, 1990--The City Council rejects Spound’s project. The developer vows to sue the city.