Hillside Estate Project Clears 1st City Hurdle : Housing: Residents demand a complete environmental report be prepared before final OK.

A luxurious estate proposed for Beverly Hills’ Hillside District successfully cleared its first hurdle in the city’s approval process late last week, despite the objections of many nearby residents who argued that a complete environmental report should be required for the project at 1146 Tower Road.

The project won approval from the city’s Environmental Review Board after a two-hour public hearing attended by about 60 people. The board, which includes four city staffers and a citizens’ representative, advises the Planning Commission on the environmental impacts of projects.

Many residents in the exclusive Hillside District above Sunset Boulevard--calling the project everything from a castle to a hotel to an apartment building--argued that an environmental impact report should be required. Such a report is not routine for single-family residences.

Architectural plans for the project show a two-story residence with 10 bedrooms, a six-bedroom guardhouse and a five-bedroom guest villa. Also planned are a tennis court, pool and parking for up to 109 vehicles.

The first two-hour session on the project took place in July and drew an overflow crowd that included actor Jack Lemmon, former Hollywood gossip maven Rona Barrett, real estate investor-developer Stuart Ketchum and a spokesman for MCA President Sidney J. Sheinberg.

At the latest round, some residents were represented by lawyers, and a spokeswoman for Assemblyman Tom Hayden also jumped into the fray.

Hayden does not yet represent the Senate district that includes Beverly Hills, “but since Tom won the primary, we’ve been getting a lot of calls from all the people who will be in Tom’s Senate district,” said Laura Cohen, Hayden’s deputy chief of staff. Cohen appealed for an environmental report.

Attorney George Mihlsten, who spoke for Lemmon, Ketchum and Sheinberg, said the issue wasn’t whether the project should be stopped, but rather disclosure of what impact the project may have.

After about two hours of testimony, the city’s review board decided in a 4-1 vote that the construction will have no significant environmental effect if mitigation measures are taken.

Citizens’ representative Donald DeWitt, who had argued in favor of a full environmental report, voted against the board’s finding.

But board members voiced concerns about the impact of traffic from the estate on the area’s narrow, winding streets. Each day during construction, 10 to 100 workers will be employed on the site. The project calls for garage space for 26 cars and 83 additional cars can be accommodated on the site, according to a city report. The review board ordered a traffic study to be completed and sent to the Planning Commission, which is expected to have a public hearing on the project by mid-November.

The traffic study, which could take as long as two months, will evaluate the project’s expected impact on traffic.

The property, which includes three individual lots, was purchased in 1988 for $9 million by Quantieme Establishment.

Lawyer Murray Fischer, who represented Quantieme at the meeting, said it is a foreign corporation owned by a person who lives in London and has maintained a residence in Beverly Hills for 13 years.

At an earlier City Council meeting, Fischer identified the owner as a Mr. Manoukian and stated emphatically that the owner is not the Sultan of Brunei, who owns the Beverly Hills Hotel. Brunei is a small, oil-rich country on the island of Borneo, and the sultan is reported to be the wealthiest person in the world.

Beverly Hills real estate broker John Bruce Nelson has said he negotiated the purchase of the three Beverly Hills properties in 1988 for London resident Robert Manoukian.

Robert Manoukian has represented the Sultan of Brunei in various real estate acquisitions and negotiated the sale of the Beverly Hills Hotel to the sultan, Nelson said. Manoukian owns two other homes in Beverly Hills.

The main residence, which will measure about 41,000 square feet, will be almost seven times as large as the average 6,000-square-foot home in Beverly Hills.