Council OKs Temple After Opponents Reach Compromise

A Los Angeles City Council panel approved plans Tuesday for a temple and school in Woodland Hills after Councilwoman Joy Picus helped reach a compromise to end a feud between the congregation and residents worried about traffic.

The compromise appears to end the three-year dispute over the plans of Temple Shir Chadash to build a 450-seat temple, a 750-seat social hall and a religious school for 300 children in the 19900 block of Topham Street, on 17.5 acres the temple leases from Pierce College.

After the agreement was disclosed, the council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee voted 2 to 0 to approve the project, which next goes to the full council.

Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization Vice President Sy Spalter said his group got “most of everything we had wanted” under the compromise, worked out during the past week by Picus.

Homeowners have said they fear the temple’s plans for its Pierce College property, which include a proposal to build 23 homes on the site, would dump more traffic on nearby residential streets.

Under the agreement, Spalter said, his group got pledges from Picus to keep nearby Calvert Street one way; to review the possibility of making three adjacent residential streets cul-de-sacs; and to get the city to study neighborhood traffic problems.

The agreement, however, permits the temple to have a membership of 600 “family units,” 100 more than originally permitted by city zoning officials.