$100-Million Suit Filed by Foiled Builders : Planning: The developers claim that Councilwoman Joy Picus changed her position on their office building plan for political reasons.

A $100-million lawsuit filed Tuesday by the thwarted developers of the Warner Ridge property in Woodland Hills accused Los Angeles City Councilwoman Joy Picus of pulling out all the political stops to kill their project, including threats to block a colleague’s ethics reform package if she didn’t get her way.

The suit, filed by partners Albert Spound and Johnson Wax Development Co. against the city, alleges that the City Council illegally deprived them of the value of their property without due process on Jan. 24.

On that date, the council voted to kill the developers’ proposal to build a $150-million, 810,000-square-foot office park on a 21.5-acre site at Warner Ridge. Instead, lawmakers rezoned the property to permit only estate-sized houses to be built on the site.

The developers bought the land in 1985 with the understanding that Picus supported a “high-quality office park” for the site, the lawsuit alleges.

But, due to fears that the project would harm her politically when she sought reelection in 1989, Picus turned against it in November, 1988, said Robert McMurry, attorney for the developers. “It was purely for political reasons that she opposed it,” he said.

Rezoning for political reasons is illegal, as is depriving a person of the reasonable economic use of their property, the lawsuit claims. Both practices are alleged in the lawsuit.

The suit seeks $100 million in damages or, as an alternative, that the council zone the property for commercial development. The suit was filed against the city of Los Angeles but also names Picus and Councilmen Zev Yaroslavsky and John Ferraro.

The three lawmakers were part of a “conspiracy” to deprive the developers of a fair and impartial hearing that violated their due process rights as guaranteed under the U.S. and state constitutions, the lawsuit claims.

McMurry said the developers--who own the property under the name Warner Ridge Associates --have already spent $50 million on the project.

In a news release, Picus said the lawsuit is “about developers who didn’t get everything they wanted through the city’s planning process, the same fair and open process that everybody else has to go through.”

Picus refused comment on the lawsuit’s specific allegations, saying she was abiding by the wishes of the city attorney’s office.

The lawsuit alleges that Councilman Michael Woo, a member of the council’s planning committee, promised the developers that he would see that the project went to the full council without a negative recommendation by the committee.

However, the complaint says, Picus “secretly and improperly influenced” Woo to vote against the project after threatening to vote against Woo’s own pet projects, “including the city’s new ‘ethics package’ legislation which Woo was championing, if he did not vote ‘her way.’ ”

Such considerations had no “relevance or reasonable relationship to the legitimate merits” of the project, the lawsuit alleges.

Picus and her chief deputy are also accused of threatening the developer’s lobbyists, Steve Afriat and Jim McDermott. If they did not drop Warner Ridge Associates as a client, the two would not be welcome in Picus’ office to represent other clients, the suit alleged.

Ferraro figured in the lawsuit because he signed the rezoning ordinance into law as acting mayor when Mayor Tom Bradley was out of town.

Yaroslavsky was named because, the lawsuit alleges, he “deceitfully” pretended to be sympathetic to Warner Ridge’s efforts, when in fact he was gathering intelligence on the developers’ strategies to defeat the project.