Woo Shifts to Oppose 64-Home Hilltop Project : * Development: Councilman’s turnaround threatens proposed construction on 172 acres overlooking Hollywood Reservoir.

City Councilman Michael Woo did an about-face Wednesday, saying he will oppose a developer’s proposal to build 64 multimillion-dollar mansions overlooking the Hollywood Reservoir.

Woo’s turnaround threatens the project, which the Jefferson Development Corp. has been planning to build on a 172-acre parcel of land on one of the last remaining unspoiled major ridges in the Hollywood Hills.

Woo said he no longer trusted Jefferson to build an environmentally sensitive project.

“In the last year, there hasn’t been any real progress in the discussions between Jefferson and the homeowners,” Woo said, “and my patience has been used up. The developer hasn’t eased my concerns about traffic, wildlife, and the destruction of natural ridgelines, and for those reasons I cannot support the project as proposed.”

“I’m not saying there won’t ever be development there,” Woo said, “but I think for all practical purposes that this project is dead.”

Woo plans to introduce a motion to the City Council to reinsert the project area into the pending Mulholland Scenic Parkway Specific Plan, which would in effect prohibit the development. Woo said he does not expect opposition from fellow council members.

The parcel is located on the north side of the reservoir near Universal City. The Mulholland plan, which has been more than 18 years in the making, would prohibit Jefferson from cutting or grading the ridge and from building houses any closer than 50 feet from the crest of the ridge.

The ridge sits between Lake Hollywood Drive and the Hollywood Freeway. Jefferson planned to cut it by as much as 100 feet and to grade three million cubic feet of earth in the process. The Mulholland plan is expected to be approved by the City Council in about four weeks.

Woo said the project could go forward if Jefferson comes back with a plan that would spare the ridge. Jefferson executives told Woo during a closed-door meeting Wednesday that building the subdivision on a flattened ridge would make it more attractive and environmentally sound, and that placing the project within the confines of the Mulholland plan would make it financially unsound.

“I’m just going to knuckle down and see if we can find a way around (Woo’s) decision,” Jefferson President Thomas P. Sullivan said later, in an interview. “I am very disappointed, obviously.”

Sullivan said he and his Japanese backers have spent three years and “a couple million” dollars on the project, and that they still intend to try to build it.

Woo’s decision is sure to stir up more controversy over the project, which has pitted some hillside homeowner groups against each other--and against their own members--for more than a year.

Some hillside homeowners have supported Jefferson, saying they trust the developer’s promises to build an environmentally sensitive project independent of the prohibitions of the Mulholland plan.

Citing that homeowner support, Woo decided in March, 1990, to exempt Jefferson from the Mulholland plan. The councilman said he wanted to allow the discussions between the homeowners and Jefferson to continue.

Critics of the project said it would not only flatten the ridge, but bring unwanted traffic and pollution to their affluent neighborhoods, mar their scenic views and encroach on wildlife habitats.

They accused Woo of helping Jefferson--one of his corporate campaign backers--against the better interests of his constituents.

Woo, who has entertained hopes of running for mayor or other higher office, has come under sharp attack during the past year for giving Jefferson the exemption. But he denied that his change of mind was political.

Woo’s decision was hailed by environmental groups.

“I am ecstatic,” said Jerry Daniel, a member of the Mulholland Scenic Parkway Citizens Advisory Committee and a board director of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy.

Both groups had opposed Woo’s decision to give Jefferson special exemptions from the Mulholland plan, but they have taken no position on the project because it has not been formally proposed to city agencies, Daniel said.

“Mike had the courage to go back and change his mind, and by doing so, reinstated integrity into the Mulholland plan process,” said Daniel, who is also chairman emeritus of the Hillside Federation, a coalition of 54 homeowner associations that also opposed the exemption. “It will mean that the scenic plan can do its job and protect the area and its prominent ridges.”