Builder Agrees to Scale Back Project

For nearly six years, residents of an aging, single-family neighborhood in eastern Highland Park have fought a hillside condominium project that they feared would open the way for a flood of similar developments.

Now the battle appears over, and the residents have made a difference.

Although the Los Angeles City Council approved a 22-unit project for the tree-topped hillside in 1986, developer William Yang recently agreed to scale it back to 17 units. He has also agreed to consider design revisions so the project will be better integrated into the community.

Although a reduction of five units might not seem like much reward for a six-year battle, the residents consider the agreement “a moral victory” that will be noticed by the city and other prospective developers.

“We feel that we have sent out a message to this developer and other developers that we are not going to just allow any developer to come in and treat us badly to make a fast buck,” said Michelle Minch, 36, who sits on the steering committee of the Arroyo Neighborhood Assn., which was created last year as part of the struggle.

Minch said the struggle has also produced a strong sense of community among the neighborhood residents.

“We’ve discovered our neighbors,” she said. “I can knock on any one of 20 doors and know the people’s names, and they will know mine.”

The battle against the project was an exercise in persistence, even when it appeared that the cause was lost.

The original developer, Michael Simms, in 1985 proposed building 35 one- and two-story condominiums on a slice of undeveloped hillside at the end of Avenue 66. Neighbors quickly dubbed the project the “dirt-haul condos” because of Simms’ plans to haul 75,000 cubic yards of dirt from the site as part of the project.

“We organized as best we could,” she said. Minch called a meeting in February, 1986, which drew nearly 250 people from the surrounding area.

A city planner initially agreed that the proposed project was “insensitive and out of character with the surrounding neighborhood,” and recommended that it be limited to 17 single-story, detached units that would appear to be single-family homes, city records show.

But Simms appealed to the Planning Commission for permission to build 22 one- and two-story units, saying it was not economically feasible for him to build just 17 single-story units. The Planning Commission approved the request and sent it to the City Council.

City Councilman Richard Alatorre, who represents the area, supported the project, and the council approved the proposal in December, 1986.

Building did not start, however, and in October, 1988, Simms sold the property to Yang.

In June, 1990, the city called for a public hearing over a proposed route that the developer would use to haul the dirt away from the site.

Minch, sensing this would be the last chance, called for the community to form an official group, which she said would give the neighborhood “legitimacy in the eyes of the city.”

After the Arroyo Neighborhood Assn. was organized, Alatorre’s planning deputy requested a delay in the hearing so the developer could negotiate with the neighbors over the size of the project.

Yang agreed to limit the project to 17 units at a meeting in Alatorre’s office earlier this month.

Diego Cardoso, Alatorre’s planning deputy, said the councilman’s change of position stemmed from a new emphasis on managed growth.

Minch and other leaders of the association said they plan to continue monitoring the project to see that Yang fulfills his promises. But now that the debate on the project is mostly over, they said they hope the association will branch out to monitor other developments and address other community issues, such as crime and gangs.