L. A. Rejects Settlement Bid Over Warner Ridge

The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday rejected a proposal to ask a judge to work out a compromise settlement of the lawsuit between the city and the would-be developer of the 21.5-acre Warner Ridge site in Woodland Hills.

Councilwoman Joy Picus, who represents the area, said the council decided in a private session that settling the lawsuit is premature. The partnership of Spound Cos. and Johnson Wax Development Co., owners of Warner Ridge, proposed the non-binding settlement process.

Picus said a settlement conference is inappropriate because the city hopes that the state Court of Appeal will soon rule in its favor. The appellate court is reviewing a lower court decision against the city in the Warner Ridge litigation.

The Warner Ridge owners sued last year, claiming that the council’s decision to rezone their property for single-family homes illegally devalued their land, which had been identified for commercial development in city plans.

The owners had received Planning Commission permission to build an 810,000-square-foot commercial-retail project on the site before the council decided to rezone the land.

Picus believes that the developers, led by Jack Spound, offered the settlement because they are in a “weak position.”

In a July 8 letter, Robert I. McMurry, attorney for the Warner Ridge partnership, said he believed that a settlement judge would provide an “objective analysis of the case to both parties.”