MCA Asks Courts to Force Los Angeles to Rezone 54-Acre Site : Development: The suit is based on the Warner Ridge ruling. The firm has no immediate plans for the land.

MCA Development Co. filed a lawsuit Tuesday asking the courts to compel a reluctant city of Los Angeles to rezone 54 acres of prime vacant property next to Universal City for major high-rise development.

The lawsuit by the real estate subsidiary of entertainment giant MCA Inc. is the latest to piggyback on the legal principles raised in the recent litigation surrounding Warner Ridge.

The property, owned by MCA, is zoned for residential development and parking, although the 1974 Community Plan designates the site as one of the city’s regional commercial centers. MCA argues that the zoning must match the community plan.

The legal underpinnings of the MCA lawsuit are similar to those of the Warner Ridge dispute. In that case, developers successfully argued that the city illegally zoned their property in Woodland Hills for residential development, although the Community Plan called for commercial projects.

A stung City Council has fought to limit the effects of the Warner Ridge ruling.

MCA Development President Larry Spungin was quick to warn Tuesday that his company has no immediate plans to develop the site and that the lawsuit was “not trying to squeak through approval of a specific project.”

“We just want to get clarification about the entitlements on this property” because the “current zoning has been a major impediment” to development, Spungin said.

Even with a zoning change, any project on the site would still have to go through the city’s routine environmental and planning review process, Spungin said.

The lawsuit does not seek damages against the city because it does not allege that any specific MCA project has been scotched by the restrictive zoning.

The affected property is a triangular parcel bordered on the southwest by the Hollywood Freeway and on the north by Universal City.

MCA attorney Benjamin Reznik called the lawsuit a “slam-dunk” for his client.

The zoning allows three houses per acre, but the Community Plan calls for a regional commercial center, Reznik said. It should be zoned for hotel, office and retail uses, Reznik said.

The lawsuit is the progeny of the Warner Ridge lawsuit, Reznik said.

In that bitterly fought litigation, the state Court of Appeal held Dec. 31 that the city had acted illegally by zoning the 21.5-acre Warner Ridge property for single-family homes.

After losing that court decision and one other, the Los Angeles City Council capitulated in January and agreed to grant the developers commercial zoning.

“Our case fits the four corners of the Warner Ridge decision,” Spungin said. “The only difference is we don’t have a specific project in mind.”

Reznik and Spungin said MCA had first asked the city Planning Department in January to rezone the property on its own initiative.

“But we got into a stalemate,” Reznik said. The city finally sent MCA an application to fill out for a zoning change. “It would take two years to get it approved,” Reznik said. “But that’s not what the law says we have to do.”

Council President John Ferraro, who represents the area, said through a spokesperson that he would not comment on the lawsuit because he had not seen it. Ferraro was a champion of settling with the Warner Ridge developers.

MCA is presently developing CityWalk, a four-block stretch of restaurants, shops, theaters and offices.