Residents Sue Universal in Dispute Over New Road

Fearing an increase in traffic, noise and pollution, disgruntled neighbors of Universal Studios are suing to halt construction of a roadway they say violates zoning laws.

Pressure from nine residents of Blair Drive stopped work for three days earlier this week to give Los Angeles County officials time to inspect the project and determine whether it violates provisions of a 1980 conditional-use permit. Inspectors found no violations and work was allowed to resume Thursday.

In their suit, filed Wednesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, the residents claim that MCA Inc., the studio’s parent company, violated county zoning laws by building a road that will connect Coral Drive, which runs alongside the northbound lanes of the Hollywood Freeway, to an existing parking lot.

Residents claim a 1980 conditional-use permit requires that the land where the road is being built be preserved as a buffer between the studio and the homes that cover the hillside to the south. Other provisions of that permit stipulate that the land not be accessible to the public and prohibit parking, residents said. The residents also argued that an environmental impact report should have been prepared before bulldozers began grading the mountainside.

“Could you imagine living across from Disneyland?” asked Myriam Giovannini, a resident involved in the lawsuit. “We are going to have thousands of cars going by on this road.”

But county officials said Thursday that MCA has abided by all provisions of the permit that still apply. Some conditions applied only to a 1980 grading project and are no longer in effect, said Rudy Lackner, an assistant administrator for the county’s regional planning department.

Larry Spungin, president of MCA Development, said provisions prohibiting public access to the land were invalidated when the city annexed Coral Drive, once MCA’s private access road, and made it a public street.

Restrictions on using the land for parking still apply, but Spungin said MCA has applied for a change to the permit that would allow construction of a parking facility. That request is scheduled to be considered by the county in the next few weeks, he said.

Spungin said MCA built the road to ease congestion along Universal Center Drive, which currently provides access to the existing lot, where visitors to the Universal Studios Tour park.

Following repeated calls from the residents of Blair Drive, the county counsel’s office on Monday ordered work at the site to halt long enough for regional planning inspectors to assess whether MCA was in violation of its permit.

Deputy County Counsel Charles Moore said in a letter to the Department of Building and Safety that no violations were found and work “can resume immediately based upon its substantial conformance to the controlling zoning and environmental clearances.”

The nine residents involved in the suit are a faction of a community group that has been negotiating with MCA over the proposed changes to the conditional use permit, said Dan Riffe, president of the Hollywood Knolls Community Club. Riffe said Wednesday’s suit was “not an action of the club and not sanctioned by the club.”

In interviews Thursday, many of the nine residents complained that the neighborhood association moved too slowly in its negotiations with MCA.