Residents Would Take to the Streets if They Could : Development: A stretch of Beverly Glen in Sherman Oaks has been torn up for weeks. Contractor vows to be be finished soon.

A street-widening project on Beverly Glen Boulevard in Sherman Oaks set off a revolt by neighbors, who have complained to City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky’s office that the thoroughfare has been torn up by a private contractor for 10 weeks.

Small neighborhood shops complain that their business is suffering, and officials of a church preschool said mothers and children are forced to run across the busy boulevard in morning rush-hour traffic to reach the school.

The intersection is particularly busy because Beverly Glen is one of the few gateways between the San Fernando Valley and the Los Angeles Basin.

The southbound lane of Beverly Glen, on the west side of the street, is torn up for about 100 feet south from Ventura Boulevard.

One resident posted a sign about 10 days ago at the intersection, reading:

“A Private Developer, Overland Centers, Tore Up This Street 10 Weeks Ago. Why Won’t the City Make Them Fix It? Ask Councilman (Zev) Yaroslavsky . . . .”

The sign listed telephone numbers for both Overland and Yaroslavsky.

A spokesman for Yaroslavsky, who has a field office in the 14300 block of Ventura Boulevard, half a block east of the intersection, said the councilman’s office did not hear about the complaints until mid-April.

“We responded as quickly as possible,” said Vivian Rescalvo, planning deputy for Yaroslavsky. “We did request a work schedule from the developer and let them know that their temporary schedule of occupancy was in jeopardy if they did not take care of this immediately.”

The developer said the project remains incomplete because it requires moving cables and telephone poles and waiting for the rain-moistened ground to dry out sufficiently to pour concrete on it.

“I can only emphasize that getting this road work done has taken priority at all times,” said Garry Sarkisian, vice president for West Coast operations of Oak Ridge Development Co. in West Los Angeles, the parent company of Overland Centers.

She said the company hopes to pour concrete Thursday and finish the project next Tuesday.

The confrontation started when the development company opened Oak Ridge Plaza, a two-story brick mini-mall on the southeast corner of Beverly Glen and Ventura. As a condition for issuing a building permit, city officials required the developer to build a second lane on the west side of Beverly Glen Boulevard.

The company tore up the sidewalk on Beverly Glen, leaving a four-foot gravel strip beside the road. It also left a large hole at the entrance to an alley behind stores on the south side of the 14400 block of Ventura Boulevard. Customers and delivery people no longer had access to the alley or to the parking space behind the businesses, and the operators said they have been suffering financially.

Anastasios Adrianos, owner of Casa Burger on the southwest corner of Beverly Glen and Ventura, said his business has dropped 50% since the road work began. Young Kim, proprietor of Young’s Cleaners a few doors down, said her shop’s business has fallen off by 40%.

“We get gardeners or builders who come to work for people on the hill and come here for breakfast and lunch,” Adrianos said Tuesday. “They can’t get in on Beverly (Glen) Boulevard because the driveway is closed, so they don’t come. They believe everything is closed.”

“We have big trouble right now,” Kim said. “Customers complain that they have to drive around the block two times to find parking. The customers are angry and so am I.”

Other problems developed at the Nurtury preschool in Sherman Oaks United Methodist Church at 14401 Dickens St., which is reachable only by way of the alley. Leilani Steelquist, administrative director of the school, said many mothers who could not get into the alley to drop off their children at the entrance were parking across the street on Beverly Glen and running their children across traffic to the school.