3 Groups Sue to Halt Fox Condo Plans : Development: Homeowners are trying to invalidate a plan for a high-rise project on the historic Pico Boulevard lot.

Opening a second front in their battle to stop development at Fox Studios in Century City, three Westside homeowner groups filed suit this week to invalidate plans for a high-rise condominium project on the historic Pico Boulevard movie lot.

The 10-year-old plan to build 2,135 condos is only a backup to the entertainment company’s primary plan of expanding its studios and production facilities. Fox executives said that if they do not win approval for the studio expansion they might move their operations elsewhere and sell the 53-acre property to a condominium developer.

Members of two Cheviot Hills homeowner groups and a Westwood organization charged that the condominium plan is outdated and oversized and that it is being unfairly used by Fox officials to gain leverage for their primary objective: expanding studio and production facilities by more than 50%.

California County Club Homes Assn., Cheviot Hills Homeowners Assn. and Friends of Westwood charge in a lawsuit filed Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court that the City of Los Angeles exceeded its authority when a city planning official extended the preliminary approval for the condominiums from June 17, 1992, to June 17, 1994.

The activists say state law permits the condominium plans, originally approved in 1982, to be extended for just 10 years. Any additional extensions should be subject to public hearings and environmental reviews, the activists said.

“This would require a new environmental clearance, notice to the community and a public hearing process, something Fox and the City of Los Angeles appear to fear,” said Loni Anderson of the Cheviot Hills Homeowners Assn.

But Fox officials, City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky and some other area homeowners groups called the lawsuit a stalling tactic by activists who do not represent the majority of the studio’s neighbors.

“It’s a sideshow within a sideshow,” said David Handelman, a senior vice president with Fox Inc.

Studio bosses had considered abandoning the Century City lot in the 1970s in favor of a less costly locale. They went so far as to obtain zone changes to permit the condominium project before reversing their plans and deciding to stay on the lot.

So-called tentative tract maps for high-rise condominiums have been held in abeyance ever since, as Fox began to draw plans to add 771,000 square feet of offices and production facilities at the studio. It approved, the addition would bring the studio to 1.89 million square feet and more than double the traffic flowing from the studio gates.

The added traffic been the central point of opposition for some neighbors. The two Cheviot Hills homeowner groups went to court last month in an attempt to stop planning for the studio expansion, saying Los Angeles planning officials had not followed proper procedures. But a Superior Court judge said the issue had been raised prematurely and permitted the drafting of an environmental impact report to continue.

The report is due late this summer, before the expansion is reviewed by a city planner, the Planning Commission and the City Council.

Fox officials, meanwhile, asked the city to extend the backup condominium plans.

“This has been such a long and arduous process, and resisted by some that, until we are assured by the city that we will receive approval, we feel we need to preserve our options,” Handelman said. “If for any reason the city denies our request to rezone, we want to preserve our rights.”

The city in April complied with Fox’s request, extending the tract maps into 1994. City officials said the extension was merely a ministerial action required under state law.

The homeowners’ lawsuit contends that the maps had already been extended the maximum permitted under state law.

“It’s an over-scaled project, based on a 1974 environmental impact report,” Westwood activist Laura Lake said. “It is obscene. If the city cared about the community it would say, ‘The time is up, we need to take a fresh look and find a plan that is more appropriate.’ ”

Lake said she hopes that the lawsuit will remove the threat of building high-rise condominiums from the discussion of the studio plan.

Fox officials and Yaroslavsky said the dispute over the condominium plan should not divert attention from the planning for the studio expansion. They argue that residents will have ample opportunity to voice their concerns about that project.

Yaroslavsky called the dispute over the backup condominium plans irrelevant.

“I don’t believe there will ever be a condo project on the property,” Yaroslavsky said. “The general community is not in sync with this lawsuit. The studio use of that property has overwhelming support in that community. It’s the loss of 3,000 jobs and an industry that has been there for 60 or 70 years that everyone really fears.”