Fox Expansion Hearing Sure to Have Lively Cast

Friends and foes of Fox Studios’ proposed expansion are hard at work assembling what they hope will be a cast of thousands--well, hundreds at least--for the first face-to-face showdown on the project, a public hearing Monday in Century City.

The studio publicity machine has cranked up an extravaganza that will feature a rally and march lead by actors Tom Skerritt from the television show “Picket Fences” and Susan Ruttan from “L.A. Law.”

An estimated 400 to 500 Friends of Fox will be on hand to strut their stuff before a Los Angeles hearing examiner, said Tom Tomlin, a public relations adviser to Fox.

When the Fox friends arrive, opponents of the project expect to greet them with a force of their own. They don’t promise to match the Fox numbers, citing work conflicts and the disadvantages of being an underfunded volunteer group facing a corporate giant.

But they have, however, been trying. An “Action Alert” from the Westside Civic Federation warning that the area’s quality of life is at stake has been delivered to 10,000 residents.

A recent ride up Motor Avenue, which dead-ends at the Fox lot on Pico Boulevard, revealed 62 lawn signs opposing the project. “Save the Westside; Stop Fox,” they say.

Cheviot Hills Homeowners’ Assn. President Lesley Reisbord said the number of people who show up at the hearing is not as significant as the validity of what they have to say.

“We think of quality versus quantity,” she said. “The end of the story is that David slew Goliath.”

The hearing is at 10 a.m. Monday in the Century Room at the Century Plaza Tower, 2055 Avenue of the Stars.

Although the opposing forces have been exchanging unfriendly comments since expansion plans were announced about 2 1/2 years ago, this is the first official public hearing on the project. It comes on the heels of a favorable environmental impact report released by the Los Angeles Planning Department in November.

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Both sides in the dispute agree on the hearing’s significance: “The eyes of the Westside, like the eyes of Texas, are going to be on this process on Monday,” said Val Cole, vice president of the Westside Civic Federation, a coalition of homeowners’ groups. “It’s the community’s best chance to protect their neighborhood from this massive expansion.”

Fox’s big argument for the expansion is jobs--as many as 4,700 during peak production periods if it gets the space it wants.

If city approval is forthcoming, 20th Century Fox Film Corp. will go forward with a $200-million, head-to-toe renovation of its 53-acre property at the western border of Century City.

Plans call for adding 771,000 square feet of office and production space and moving Fox KTTV television operations from Hollywood to the Westside. Fox is one of three studios on the Westside seeking to modernize to keep pace with their changing industry.

Traffic to the studio gates would more than double if the full expansion is approved, forming a key basis for opposition from residents of nearby neighborhoods.

Promises from Fox that it will mitigate traffic with street and signal improvements have done little to assuage concerns of residents jaded by similar promises from other developers that turned out to be hollow.

Acknowledging the area’s history of traffic inundation, area Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky said the Fox project “has been and must continue to be judged more critically and rigorously than it would in almost every other part of the city.”

Yaroslavsky, who as councilman is key to gaining city approval for the project, said he is proposing that it be done in phases, with an agreement from Fox that it will not be able to move forward if promises to curb traffic go awry.

“Phasing will protect us against faulty assumptions or unforeseen circumstances,” Yaroslavsky said last week.

Yaroslavsky said he wants Fox to revamp the production facilities first and save the office space--the higher traffic generator--for later. He is also asking Fox to implement all traffic mitigation measures at the outset, rather than in phases.

“The Fox Studios expansion project is not a choice between neighborhood protection and jobs,” Yaroslavsky said. “On the contrary, it’s an opportunity to provide jobs while protecting our quality of life.”

The Beverly Hills City Council, which has in the past expressed concerns about impacts of the project on its city, this week voted to favor the project if Fox agrees to stringent monitoring and phasing, and pays for street improvements.

Project Manager Helen McCann said the studio is listening and is willing to address the concerns both cities have about whether the actual effects of the project will match--or exceed--projections. But, McCann said, Fox has not agreed on a phasing approach.

Fox, meanwhile, has released results of a citywide poll of Los Angeles residents who, they say, favor the project by a ratio of 5 1/2 to 1. They have not, however, provided statistics for the neighborhoods around the studio that will be most seriously affected.

The poll, conducted recently by Fairbank, Maullin & Associates, has sparked a new attack on Yaroslavsky by project opponents who have long contended that he is too friendly to Fox.

The Cheviot Hills Homeowners’ Assn. has sent a letter to the city Ethics Commission alleging that the poll was conducted at the behest of Yaroslavsky, who is up for reelection this April. Slow-growth activist Laura Lake has announced that she will run against Yaroslavsky, as she did four years ago.

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According to the homeowners’ letter, respondents to the poll were asked their preference in City Council candidates. If so, they charge, it constitutes an illegal, “in-kind” contribution, considerably over the $500 campaign contribution limit. Fox Vice President David Handelman said the studio “took a poll of our neighbors” that did not mention Yaroslavsky’s name. The only political question asked respondents how often they vote in City Council elections, he said.

A copy of the survey provided to The Times substantiates Handelman’s explanation.

Yaroslavsky insisted he that knew nothing about a Fox poll, with or without his name, until contacted by The Times. “We knew nothing about this,” he said.

The councilman said the homeowners would have been right about the impropriety of Fox conducting a poll for him--if it had happened. “It’s illegal, wrong, crazy and stupid,” he said.