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Yaroslavsky Backs Beverly Hills Annex Plan : Neighborhoods: Councilman supports bid by residents of L.A. area to detach their property from the city for safety reasons. Critics say it’s a political payoff.

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, offering a rare level of constituent service, is supporting 10 Los Angeles property owners in their efforts to have their homes annexed to Beverly Hills, a change that would increase the value of each home by at least $150,000.

In addition to gaining the instant cachet that goes with a Beverly Hills address, the families would have access to the city’s renowned schools and would enjoy a much expanded array of municipal services, in cluding the protection of the vaunted Beverly Hills Police Department.

Yaroslavsky, whose support for the homeowners is crucial to their success, said he agreed to back the annexation effort strictly on public policy grounds after becoming convinced that Hillgreen Drive was inaccessible to Los Angeles fire and police services. Some of his adversaries, however, suggest that Yaroslavsky is doing a favor for a political ally and campaign contributor.

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Hillgreen Drive is a cul-de-sac that ends just over the curb from the major intersection of Century Park East and Pico Boulevard. Part of the street is in Beverly Hills and the balance in Los Angeles. The cul-de-sac has been in place for about 20 years, since Century City was built and the street’s access was cut.

The property owners say that they are endangered because Los Angeles fire, police and paramedic officers must reach their homes by driving through Beverly Hills and often cannot figure out how to get there. “I wouldn’t want it on my conscience if a paramedic unit didn’t get to Hillgreen in time, Yaroslavsky said.

By backing the boundary change, Yaroslavsky breaks with his tradition of thwarting those who have sought to move up from “Beverly Hills Adjacent” to Beverly Hills proper, records and interviews show.

The city of Los Angeles also generally opposes ceding ground--and tax revenue--to another jurisdiction. “It’s not a normal thing for us to let property go,” said Jim Krakowski, a city legislative analyst.

Michi Takahashi, of the county’s Local Agency Formation Commission, which must also approve the annexation, agreed that Los Angeles’ willingness to let go of the properties is unusual.

But Yaroslavsky insists that the cul-de-sac situation is unique. City police and fire officials have concurred, though it is unlikely that they would fight the chairman of the City Council’s budget and finance committee over 10 houses.

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Two other properties that straddle the boundary line and already receive Beverly Hills services will be included with the 10.

The lone dissenting voice is the city administrative officer. A report recommending against the move noted that the Los Angeles Fire Department has a station closer to the homes than the one that would serve them in Beverly Hills if the annexation goes through.

The chief administrative officer is also opposed to the revenue loss. Los Angeles would lose $5,128 in property taxes the first year, and more in subsequent years as taxes increase.

Los Angeles would incur an additional one-time expense of $4,900 in detaching the area from city services, according to the administrative officer’s report.

Yaroslavsky, however, said Los Angeles may come out ahead on the deal because of a quirk in the tax law and after subtracting the cost of providing city services to the area.

The annexation will clearly cost Beverly Hills. That city must vote to take in the homes, though an official petition is not on file. A preliminary start-up cost estimate of $19,000 was recently presented to the Beverly Hills City Council.

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Currently, the detachment process is wending its way through Los Angeles city channels, with several steps to go before it reaches the City Council.

Yaroslavsky’s support of the annexation is viewed with suspicion by political foes in the community. They contend that Yaroslavsky is backing the move to assist a key homeowner ally, Abe Knobel. Knobel’s home is on the Los Angeles end of Hillgreen and he has been spearheading the residents’ efforts to get a Beverly Hills address.

Knobel, the president of his homeowners’ association, is chairman of an ad hoc task force that is studying 20th Century Fox’s traffic impact statement before making a judgment whether the Century City area can absorb the traffic the studio’s proposed expansion would generate.

The Fox expansion, which many of Yaroslavsky’s slow-growth-minded constituents oppose, is a political hot potato for the councilman. Knobel and some other homeowner group leaders, however, have become key allies by adopting Yaroslavsky’s “wait-and-see” approach to the impacts of the Fox plan.

Knobel, an accountant and financial adviser with his own real estate brokerage, has either alone or through companies contributed $2,100 to Yaroslavsky’s campaigns since 1985, according to campaign records. Before starting his own business, Knobel described himself as the “right-hand man” of prominent developer David Wilstein, chairman of the board of Realtech Development and Construction Co.

Yaroslavsky and Knobel categorically deny any mutual back-scratching, however, and both men say that Knobel is not in a powerful enough position to neutralize criticism of the Fox plan from other quarters. Both also insist that they have taken no position on the expansion.

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“Zev has no control of this committee,” Knobel said.

Yaroslavsky said in an interview that he was unaware of Knobel’s campaign contributions, nor did he realize that Knobel had worked for Wilstein, whom Yaroslavsky described as a well-known Jewish community leader. Wilstein is also a political contributor and philanthropist.

The councilman said charges of favoritism are ill-founded because he had agreed to back the boundary change at least two years ago when he first met with Knobel.

However, the motion to start the lengthy city process was made at the Los Angeles City Council on March 6, 1990, one week before Fox made its official announce ment.

A month earlier, Yaroslavsky sent a letter of support to the Local Agency Formation Committee, a county agency that must pass on the boundary change.

“When Fox got going, the motion got going,” said Laura Lake, a prominent slow-growth advocate who lost a bid to unseat Yaroslavsky in 1989. “It’s worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and one of the biggest payoffs I’ve ever come across.”

The recent slump in the real estate market makes it difficult to say with precision how much the value of a Hillgreen Drive address would increase with a shift to Beverly Hills, but there is wide agreement among those who know the market that the rise would be substantial.

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Attorney Irving Reifman, who appraises Westside homes as a California Probate Referee for the courts, compared two homes on a street near Hillgreen that is split between Beverly Hills and Los Angeles. The Beverly Hills home, though not as nice, sold for 15% more than the Los Angeles property, leading him to conclude the Beverly Hills bonus in that neighborhood is 15% to 20%, Reifman said.

Helene Sherman, an agent in Beverly Hills for Jon Douglas Co., estimated that the shift would increase the values of the Los Angeles houses by 15%. Homes on the Beverly Hills end of Hillgreen have sold this year for an average of $1.1 million, according to real estate records, Sherman said.

No homes have sold recently on the Los Angeles end, but Sherman placed values about $150,000 to $200,000 less.

Knobel himself said he anticipates a $200,000 increase in value on his home, which he purchased in 1985. He said the houses on his end of the block are in the $800,000 range.

But money is a secondary motive to him, Knobel said. “It’s basically a fire, life and safety issue.”

Knobel recalled a house fire in which someone had to flag down the lost truck as it zoomed back and forth on Avenue of the Stars looking for Hillgreen. In another emergency situation, chil dren had to flag down a paramedic unit on Pico Boulevard to help their ailing father, he said.

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Regulars at the local fire station know the neighborhood, Knobel said, but he said he was worried about instances in which firefighters unfamiliar with the area might be on duty or a neighboring station might answer a call, Knobel said.

Knobel has an infant and a 5-year-old, who attends private school. He admits that he and his wife will reconsider the schooling issue if the annexation to Beverly Hills goes through.

On the Beverly Hills end, the Planning Department has a file on the case. Internal memos note that this is the first time Yaroslavsky has agreed to cede Los Angeles property to Beverly Hills. Yaroslavsky’s district encircles Beverly Hills, so many of his constituents live near the border of the city of legendary wealth.

“My district is the bagel and Beverly Hills is the hole in that bagel,” Yaroslavsky said in an interview.

Beverly Hills Mayor Allan Alexander said he is not surprised at the clamor to get into his city. “Everyone would love to be annexed to Beverly Hills,” he said.

Alexander said he suggested at one point that the Hillgreen residents pay for the privilege by being assessed a tidy chunk of their windfall as an entrance fee. The idea was rejected by the city attorney as illegal, the mayor said.

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Alexander said he remains to be convinced that the annexation is good for Beverly Hills, but like nearly every other official interviewed, he said, “It seems to make sense.”

And dollars.

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