Council to Appeal Decision on Zoning : Warner Ridge: A judge’s ruling in a developer’s favor will be fought. The Los Angeles council is worried that the case might set a precedent.

The city of Los Angeles, alarmed at the possibility of many more such cases, plans to appeal a judge’s ruling that overturned a City Council decision and granted a developer the zoning needed to build a controversial commercial project on Warner Ridge in Woodland Hills, Councilwoman Joy Picus said Thursday.

The city attorney’s office told the council in closed session Wednesday of its plans to appeal the June 22 ruling by Superior Court Judge John Zebrowski, Picus said.

She said the council indicated its support for an appeal.

Picus said planning officials warned lawmakers during the closed-door meeting that thousands of parcels throughout the city might be eligible for higher density development than current city practice allows if Zebrowski’s ruling remains in effect.

Zebrowski ordered the city to rezone Warner Ridge for commercial development--thus bringing the zoning of the 21.5-acre parcel into accord with the city’s community plan, which for several years has designated the property for neighborhood-office-commercial development.

The property had been zoned for estate-sized single family houses by the council in an effort to block a commercial development there.

Zebrowski based his ruling on a state law that requires community plans and zoning to be in conformity. The judge also held that where a discrepancy exists, the zoning must be brought into agreement with the community plans, not vice versa.

Planning officials told the council Wednesday that about 15,000 parcels in the city are designated on city plans for development that is substantially more intense than the zoning for the same properties, Picus said. The ruling thus could “throw our entire planning process into chaos,” Picus said.

The city attorney’s office declined to comment on the council’s executive session. The city has 60 days from the date of Zebrowski’s ruling to file an appeal.

Picus said the city Planning Department also will be processing her plans for amending the community plan for the Warner Ridge area to allow only residential development on the site.

The Spound Co. and Johnson Wax Development Co. own Warner Ridge, where they want to build an 810,000-square-foot commercial project consisting of half a dozen low-rise office buildings.

The developers have claimed that they bought the property based on the belief--which they said was encouraged by Picus--that they could build an office complex on it. But, the partnership has claimed, Picus turned against it after political pressures on her from anti-development homeowners grew too great and she engineered zoning of the property for single-family houses.

In January, the council voted with Picus to impose single-family zoning on the property and rejected the Spound-Johnson Wax proposal for commercial zoning.

When the city’s appeal is filed, the developer will ask Zebrowski to keep in effect his order giving the city 60 days to rezone the property, said attorney Robert I. McMurry, who represents the developer. Normally, lower court rulings are suspended pending the outcome of an appeal.