Judge May Void Warner Ridge Zoning Decision : Development: The city could be asked to reconcile its action with its community plan, which outlines a commercial project.

A Superior Court judge Thursday strongly indicated he will nullify a Los Angeles City Council action that zoned the vacant 21.5-acre Warner Ridge property for single-family houses to block construction of a controversial office complex on the site.

But Judge John Zebrowski, in remarks from the bench, seemed less sure whether he should or could order the city to rezone the site in Woodland Hills to permit commercial development there.

Without such an order, the developers who brought the suit now before Zebrowski would win the battle but lose the war, argued their attorney, Robert I. McMurry.

For years, the site, sandwiched between Warner Center and Pierce College along the east side of De Soto Avenue, has been a battleground between successive developers and homeowner groups, and has proved to be a political headache for Councilwoman Joy Picus, who represents the area.

The partnership of Albert (Jack) Spound and the Johnson Wax Development Co. is suing the city for the right to build a $150-million, 810,000-square-foot complex of seven office buildings on the Warner Ridge site. The lawsuit seeks to overturn a Jan. 24, 1990, council decision zoning the 21.5-acre parcel for residential use only, even though the site was designated for office use by the area’s community plan.

The discrepancy between the zoning and the community plan was the crux of the legal debate during an hourlong hearing before Zebrowski.

If the residential zoning remains intact, the developer would lose millions of dollars invested in reliance on city assurance that a major commercial complex could be developed on the property, according to the lawsuit. The developer claimed to have spent $50 million on the project to date and said residential zoning would allow construction of fewer than 40 houses there.

In a tentative order he showed to attorneys for both sides, the judge said he would give the city 120 days to make consistent the zoning and the city plan for the site. Zebrowski issued no formal ruling but said he would do so soon.

Zebrowski made it clear that the case boils down to a question of whether the city acted properly when it zoned the property for residential development last January, although the city’s community plan, adopted in 1984, designated the property for commercial and office uses.

Under state law, the city is required to make zoning and community plans consistent with each other.

But consistency can be achieved either by changing the zoning to match the plan or the plan to match the zoning.

The Spound-Wax partnership fears that, if ordered to synchronize the zoning and plan conditions for Warner Ridge, the city would make the plan conform to the area’s single-family zoning.

McMurry told Zebrowski it would be “like the tail wagging the dog” if zoning is allowed to dictate what the community plan says about a property. The community plan, the planning “constitution” of the city, is supposed to be superior, McMurry argued.

Not before the judge Thursday was the partnership’s allegation that Picus violated its due-process rights. Picus, the lawsuit alleges, acted unfairly by changing her position on the project to protect herself from a potential voters revolt.

Picus, who the plaintiffs said had earlier supported the project, has been a staunch foe of the development since November, 1988. She declined comment Thursday on the hearing in Zebrowski’s court.

Robert Gross, president of the Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization, said of the hearing: “This is no time to overreact about what took place today.” The homeowners group once threatened to fight Picus’ 1989 reelection bid unless she opposed the Spound-Wax project, according to allegations made in the lawsuit.

Gross said Zebrowski’s stance makes it more important than ever for the city to pass a measure--introduced by Picus in January, 1989--to amend the Woodland Hills community plan to designate the Warner Ridge site for single-family residential development.

Gordon Murley, president of the Federation of Hillside and Canyon Homeowner Associations, was more concerned about Zebrowski’s direction.

“I guess the judge is saying it’s all right to screw up civilization,” Murley said. “Doesn’t he know about the law of physics that says no two things can occupy the same space? How the hell are you going to put all the cars this project will generate on the streets when they’re already congested?”