Homeowners Seek L. A.’s Role in Appeal : Warner Ridge: The Woodland Hills group wants to take over the city’s fight against the planned development. The request is made in a letter to the state Supreme Court.

Refusing to give up its anti-development fight, the Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization has asked the California Supreme Court for permission to take over the city’s battle against a large office and residential complex planned at Warner Ridge.

In a letter to the high court, homeowners attorney Antonio Rossman requested Friday that the Woodland Hills group be allowed to substitute for the city to appeal a Dec. 31 ruling by a three-judge state Court of Appeal panel.

That court ordered the city to grant the Warner Ridge developers the zoning they need to develop a major commercial project on the 21.5-acre site. Although the property is zoned for only residential use, the judges found that under state law, the city’s community plan supersedes local zoning when there is a conflict. The Woodland Hills property is designated in the local community plan for commercial use.

The appeals court ruling devastated the city’s case in the Warner Ridge lawsuit and helped drive the City Council three weeks later to adopt an out-of-court settlement that allows the Warner Ridge developers to build a 690,000-square-foot commercial complex and 125 condominiums on their parcel.

Despite the settlement, the city later filed a motion with the state Supreme Court challenging the appeals court ruling in an attempt to limit its impact on other development and zoning matters. City officials have speculated that the ripple effect of the Dec. 31 ruling may result in zoning changes that would permit additional development on tens of thousands of parcels. City officials also fear that other developers will sue the city.

Superior Court Judge R. William Schoettler ordered the city last week to drop its appeal, claiming that it was inconsistent for the city to settle the case and appeal it. Schoettler, however, did not bar the city from asking the high court to “de-publish” the Dec. 31 ruling, which the city has done. If a case is not published, it cannot be used as precedent in other lawsuits.

The Woodland Hills group now wants “to stand in place of the city” and to take over its appeal before the Supreme Court, Rossman wrote in his petition to the high court justices.

If granted such status, the homeowners would argue that the state appeals court erred in its order, Rossman wrote.

Robert Gross, president of the Woodland Hills group, acknowledged that it will be “an uphill battle” to win the procedural right to appeal the case to the Supreme Court because the group is not a party to the lawsuit. But there are precedents for such appeals, according to the homeowners group.

Gross said his group will contact several hundred homeowner groups and other interested parties this week to solicit their financial support for the Woodland Hills group’s continuing legal fight.

“I think it’s sinking in that this case has sweeping implications,” he said.

The Warner Ridge developers sued the city for $100 million in the spring of 1990 soon after the Los Angeles City Council, led by Councilwoman Joy Picus, had voted to permit only a 65-unit, single-family housing development to be built on the property.