Neighbors Attack Plan for 4-Acre Hill Estate : Development: Residents say the proposed 59,000-square-foot complex is too big and balk at the possibility of years of noisy construction.

A luxury estate proposed for Beverly Hills’ Hillside District met a maelstrom of community opposition last week.

About 100 residents from the exclusive residential district above Sunset Boulevard crowded into City Council chambers Wednesday to applaud a parade of speakers calling for a full environmental impact report for the 59,000-square-foot estate planned for 1146 Tower Road.

Calling the mansion everything from the Smithsonian to a possible site for the next presidential inauguration, residents argued that the proposed project should not be considered as a single-family residence but as a complex of buildings that includes separate apartment buildings for guests and security staff.

City Planning Commissioners also voiced reservations about the project.

Estate plans call for a two-story, 41,000-square-foot main residence with 14 bedrooms, a gym, a ballroom and theater. A 3,000-square-foot security gatehouse will have six bedrooms, and an 8,000-square-foot guest villa will have five bedrooms. The estate will provide 25 enclosed parking spaces, and space along driveways and the main residence motor court will accommodate 68 additional cars.

In a neighborhood that counts among its residents Jack Lemmon, Jay Leno, MCA President Sydney Sheinberg and real estate investor-developer Stuart Ketchum, the main residence would be four to eight times the size of other area homes, which range from 5,000 to 10,000 square feet. The residence would be more than 25 times the size of a standard 1,600-square-foot, three-bedroom Los Angeles tract house.

The four-acre property is owned by London resident Robert Manoukian, who consolidated three individual parcels into one estate when he bought the lots in 1988 for slightly more than $9 million, according to county property records and a spokesman for Manoukian.

Although Manoukian has represented the Sultan of Brunei in various real estate acquisitions, including the Beverly Hills Hotel, according to real estate sources, the Sultan has nothing to do with this property, said a spokesman for Manoukian.

Lawyer Murray Fischer, the owner’s representative, said Manoukian owns three other residential properties in Beverly Hills and has maintained a part-time home in the city for 13 years.

It is Manoukian’s desire to create a park-like estate surrounded by dense landscaping for his family, Fischer said. His 17-member extended family, which includes grandparents, in-laws, brothers and young children, would live there one to two months each year along with 10 to 13 staff members when everyone is in residence.

The three homes now on the property, built in 1927, 1955 and 1956, according to public records, would be demolished to make way for the new home.

MCA President Sheinberg, who lives nearby on Tower Road, minced no words in describing how he felt about the project.

It must be for an “insane asylum,” he said. “I think these people are nuts” if they are building a house only to use it two months out of the year and a ballroom to be used only once every three years, Sheinberg said.

“They’re either nuts or they have a total disregard for money,” Sheinberg said.

People choose to live in the hillside district, said Meralee Goldman, a former planning commissioner, because they like the quiet, peace and beauty of a rural-like setting that is moments from the city.

“We’re not willing to welcome a resort hotel in our neighborhood,” she said. An estate should be a lot of land surrounding a building, not a lot of building that covers the land.

Other residents voiced concerns about the environmental impact of two years of construction on the community and the narrow, winding roads surrounding the property.

However, the city’s Environmental Review Board ruled last September that the construction of the home would have no significant environmental impact if a list of 37 mitigation measures were taken. Although since disbanded, the board, which worked as an advisory group to the Planning Commission, also ordered a traffic study for the commission to evaluate.

After nearly 3 1/2 hours of testimony Wednesday, Planning Commissioners agreed to continue public hearings on the project at their Feb. 24 meeting.

Commissioner Hamid Gabbay said the applicant should be given the chance to respond to questions and statements made during the hearing, and the commission should keep its options open, including asking for a project redesign or an EIR.

Commissioners Paul Selwyn and Rose Norton said, based on what they had heard thus far, the project should be redesigned and resubmitted. Chairman Jerry Magnin said an environmental report would have to be prepared or the applicant would have to present evidence that there would be no impact on the surrounding environment.