Homeowners’ Suit May Bar Them From Panel

A group of Chatsworth residents who filed suit last month over a municipal courthouse planned for their neighborhood may be banned from serving on a committee to help design the $51.5-million project.

County officials are debating the membership of the committee, and the head of Los Angeles Municipal Court says she has been advised by a county attorney not to appoint members of the Chatsworth Homeowners Committee because of the pending litigation.

But homeowners say it is outrageous to have a committee that shuns them appointed to plan a building in their neighborhood.

“To be excluded would be a slap in the face,” said Chuck Novak of the 1,000-member Chatsworth Homeowners Committee. “To me there should be no debate.”

At issue is a so-called Ad Hoc Advisory Committee being created by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to let the community suggest some aspects of the design of the courthouse proposed for Plummer Street and Winnetka Avenue.

Among the issues that the committee will discuss with court officials are landscaping, lighting and parking. Members also will talk about security measures for the courthouse.

The Chatsworth Homeowners Committee has raised several of those issues during more than two years of trying to prevent the site from being selected. The courthouse is to be built at the end of a street in a commercial-industrial area that is adjacent to a neighborhood of single-family houses.

The committee filed a lawsuit April 23, alleging that the environmental impact report for the project violated state laws because it did not adequately consider the adverse affects of the project on the neighborhood. The lawsuit contends that the courthouse would lower real estate values, increase traffic and pollution in the area and expose residents to danger.

County officials have denied that the environmental review was faulty and forged ahead with plans for the courthouse, including plans for the advisory committee.

Aviva K. Bobb, presiding judge of Los Angeles Municipal Court, said in a letter to county Supervisor Mike Antonovich written last month that “in light of county counsel’s advise, no members of the Chatsworth Homeowners’ Assn. will be selected to serve on the committee.”

The county’s lawyer in the case, Karen Lichtenberg, advised Bobb that court officials should not meet with the Chatsworth committee unless they were discussing the litigation and Lichtenberg was present, Bobb said. Other meetings with Chatsworth committee members “might affect the outcome of litigation,” Bobb said.

But Lori Howard, an aide to Antonovich, said she had been told by County Counsel Dewitt Clinton that members of the Chatsworth group could serve on the committee. Howard said she plans to propose three names of members of the homeowners group as committee members.

Clinton could not be reached for comment. Lichtenberg, who works for Clinton, said she had not spoken with Howard and refused to comment on what advice she had given to the court. “I don’t care to get involved in that dispute,” she said.

Lichtenberg would only address the lawsuit, saying, “We intend to engage in good-faith settlement negotiations with the Chatsworth Homeowners Assn.”

But homeowners questioned the county’s intentions. They said a settlement meeting on the lawsuit has been scheduled for May 21 even though the county is blocking their participation in the design process.

Homeowners Committee Chairman Harry Godley said the group would like to see the courthouse placed in another area in Chatsworth. But, he said, they would also like to work with the county to design ways to mitigate impacts of the courthouse should it end up in their neighborhood.

“We’re the ones being affected and impacted,” he said. “These are our homes. Why should we not be allowed to exercise our rights?”