Bernson to Reconsider Exemptions for Friend : Chatsworth: The Fire Department wants certain conditions imposed on the subdivision. The councilman agrees to delay vote until Friday.

Los Angeles Fire Department officials Wednesday persuaded Councilman Hal Bernson to reconsider his plan to exempt a 21-house subdivision owned by Ray Mulokas, a friend and political contributor, from some city fire code requirements.

After a private meeting with three fire officials, including Assistant Chief Del Howard, Bernson postponed until Friday a City Council vote that was set Wednesday to enact the conditions to be imposed on Mulokas’ project in Chatsworth.

“We shared with the councilman the issues we’ve been concerned about all along, and we convinced him to study the matter further,” said Fire Capt. John Holloway.

But in an interview, Bernson said that while he is willing to take a second look at the fire code situation, his preference is to stick to his original recommendations, including one to exempt Mulokas from providing a paved 1,000-foot-long emergency access road to his project.

“I want to see if it’s financially feasible” for Mulokas to bear the cost of paving the road, Bernson said. He said he was concerned that the conditions sought by the Fire Department will “kill the project and bankrupt this guy.”

Bernson also said he is ready to recommend that Mulokas install extra fire hydrants at his project and install fire sprinkler systems in all the houses--conditions not now required by the Fire Department--in return for the exemptions.

Last week, Bernson, acting as chairman of the council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee, recommended the exemptions for the Mulokas project and characterized his own opposition to the Fire Department recommendations as unusual.

“I would not normally go along with this,” he said at the time. He said he was afraid that the expenses involved would prevent the project’s construction.

The cost of fully complying with the Fire Department access standards has been estimated at between $500,000 and $1.4 million.

Mulokas is seeking permission to build 21 single-family houses on a 14-acre site just south of the Simi Valley Freeway. The developer is a friend of Bernson’s and has contributed $1,500 to his political coffers.

The city fire code requires that paved emergency access roads be provided to projects such as Mulokas’ that are built on cul-de-sacs longer than 700 feet, Holloway said. The object is to provide a second access for emergency vehicles.

In the case of Mulokas’ development, the emergency road would connect the rear of the project to Winnetka Avenue. The main entrance to the project is off Corbin Avenue.

In addition, the department wants to require that homes in the subdivision not be occupied until Corbin can be extended northward to the Mulokas project.

Making this road improvement might cost several hundred thousand dollars because it will entail constructing a bridge over buried water lines, according to the developer’s engineering firm. Because Corbin will eventually become a major connection to the huge Porter Ranch project, it is unfair for Mulokas to solely bear the cost of this improvement, Bernson said.