Builder Asks Court to Tell Hidden Hills to Accept Seniors Housing Project
A developer has asked a Los Angeles Superior Court judge to find the city of Hidden Hills in contempt of court and to order the approval of a lower-cost housing project in the wealthy town.
Judge R. William Schoettler Jr. is scheduled to hold a hearing Thursday on Tarzana developer Danny Howard’s request that the city be forced to approve his project, which includes 46 housing units for senior citizens.
Last year city officials disclosed the plan to build housing for seniors, to cost less than Hidden Hills’ expensive houses, on part of 25 acres the gated city would annex from Los Angeles County.
A group of residents complained that the project would alter the single-family character of Hidden Hills, where large houses nestle among oaks. Three of the leading critics are running for the five-member City Council in April.
The impending election is one reason that Howard is asking for the court order, said his attorney, Benjamin N. Reznik.
“We’re going to lose the whole shebang here, the whole option we have on the property, and all the costs . . . if we don’t get approved right away,” Reznik said. “We’re not going to stand idly by while certain interests or dissenters play politics with the court’s order.”
The order was part of a settlement the city agreed to last year to settle a lawsuit over its formation of a redevelopment agency to finance a flood-control project. State law requires 20% of redevelopment funds to be spent on lower-cost housing. Under the settlement, the city agreed to include Howard’s development project, with the senior citizen housing, in its redevelopment plan.
Under Howard’s plan, nine luxury homes would be built on 20 acres within the town’s gates and on its network of private roads. The housing for seniors and a commercial building would be built on the 5 acres outside the gates.
The City Council has generally supported the development proposal as a way to settle the lawsuit. But, amid continuing public pressure, the council last month began considering whether the legal requirement could be eliminated simply by disbanding the redevelopment agency.
City Atty. Wayne K. Lemieux suggested that idea last month in a conference with Schoettler. According to Lemieux, Schoettler said he did not wish to see the opportunity for lower-cost housing slip away.
In a response Tuesday the request for a contempt citation, City Atty. Wayne K. Lemieux said in court documents that the city is meeting the requirements of last year’s settlement. The settlement contained no deadlines that the city has broken, he said. The city plans to begin Planning Commission consideration of the project next Wednesday, with City Council action possible by April 17, he said.
“The city is moving with reasonable dispatch,” Lemieux said.
