Concerns Raised Over Picus Warner Center Plan

Warner Center property owners told a Los Angeles City Council panel Tuesday they are worried and confused by Councilwoman Joy Picus’ plan to temporarily halt virtually all new construction in the blue-chip commercial center.

Cautious criticism of Picus’ proposal to amend the Warner Center Interim Control Ordinance was voiced by half a dozen of the area’s biggest landowners at a hearing before the council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee.

Gordon Murley of the Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization testified that the Picus proposal is needed to halt development that would swamp the area’s streets.

The amendment calls for limiting the Warner Center area to 15.8 million square feet of commercial space--about half of the 26 million square feet envisioned by Picus’ own citizen planning panels, and only about 1.5 million square feet more than now exists. Currently, the city’s plan for the area would allow about 40 million square feet.

“We are very concerned,” said Craig Cahow of Trizec Properties, which owns buildings in Warner Center leased by Data Products and has plans to expand. His company invested $60 million in Warner Center in the expectation that it would be able to expand to a greater degree than the Picus measure would allow, Cahow testified.

Part of the concern lies in the uncertainty about Picus’ intentions, said David Grannis, who represents three property owners in the area, including the Promenade shopping mall.

Although Picus has said the amendment is needed to block several major building projects, those projects are unlikely to be built soon, developers say, raising questions about what she really wants.

Picus, who is on vacation, was unavailable for comment Tuesday. But her planning aide, Jim Dawson, told the committee that the councilwoman’s proposal was a temporary measure to ensure that big new projects are not built before completion of the Warner Center Specific Plan, which is to provide the permanent development blueprint for the future.

That plan, under development for five years, is expected to require developers to pay for major transportation improvements in return for permission to build. Dawson said the Specific Plan might be ready for final adoption by late this year or early 1992.

In the meantime, the city’s interim control ordinance for the area--which Picus is now seeking to amend--requires developers who are building now to agree to pay whatever transportation fees are eventually required.

Because the fees are unknown, the agreement amounts to signing a blank check, which already serves as a powerful control on development, Grannis said in an interview.

JMB/Urban Development Co., owner of the Blue Cross property in Warner Center, urged that less time be spent on amending the interim ordinance and more on finishing the specific plan. With a specific plan, owners will have “a clear definition of the rules and regulations which will affect their future,” JMB executive Steve Meixner wrote the committee.

If Picus’ amendment is only a temporary measure “we have no problem,” Cahow said in an interview. “But if this is something that’s going to reflect the ultimate specific plan, then we’ve got real concerns. It would basically halt development.”

Without comment, the panel referred Picus’ amendment to the Planning Department and city attorney’s office to prepare the necessary legal language.