Problems on Location : Neighborhoods: Filming at mansion angers neighbors, who take case to the city. Both camps have powerful allies, with mayor backing the homeowner and a councilman siding with opponents.

Buffalo, Toledo and Kansas City do not have neighborhood squabbles like this.

A sprawling mansion, owned by an antiques dealer who dabbles in real estate, becomes a favorite set for television and films, its credits including a Michael Jackson music video and movies such as “Indecent Proposal” and “Beverly Hillbillies.”

A professional sports agent who lives nearby rebels against the hubbub that filming causes on the winding, mountain roads above the Beverly Hills Hotel. He also grumbles about the large, star-studded bashes held at Mark Slotkin’s home.

The controversy spills into City Hall, where a powerful councilman has proposed resolving the feud by restricting filmmakers’ access to the mansion. Entertainment industry advocates jump into the fray and turn a dispute among well-heeled neighbors into a test of Los Angeles’ commitment to the business that gives the city its glitz.

Industry officials have long complained about the red tape they encounter in Los Angeles, and have increasingly taken their cameras to the many cities and states that offer them better deals.

“Restricting filming would send a message to the industry that we’re not willing to be flexible and it would set a precedent,” said Cody Cluff, Mayor Richard Riordan’s entertainment industry liaison who opposes the effort to limit access. “Over time, more and more conditions would develop and you would lose location after location after location.”

Pushing for restrictions is a small group of neighbors who paid a pretty penny for their homes and want to enjoy them in peace.

“This is not a back lot,” said attorney and sports agent Robert Cohen, who is leading the charge. “Let the industry go elsewhere to an area that is more open. Our interests are more important than their interests.”

Even more than the occasional filming, Cohen is angry about the parties Slotkin has held at his home. Cohen accuses his neighbor of renting the house to the highest bidder--last summer it was the Saudi Arabian royal family--in an effort to recover the huge sums he sunk into construction.

Cohen says that weddings, corporate parties and entertainment industry galas have been held at the home, which is inspired by a landmark Beaux Arts-style mansion at Madison Avenue and 37th Street in New York City. Plopped atop a hill, the Slotkin home sits inside towering gates, with two bronze lions out front.

Cohen enlisted the aid of Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, who has sought to block filming at the property to pressure Slotkin into limiting parties.

Slotkin, who has a petition of support from the bulk of the neighbors, denies that he holds commercial gatherings at his home, a violation of city codes. He acknowledges that he has held some charity events and private get-togethers, but nothing that has gotten out of hand.

As for filming, Slotkin says the house is usually used only for brief scenes, such as Robert Redford and Demi Moore strolling past the pool in “Indecent Proposal” or an indoor staircase scene in “Beverly Hillbillies.” Film crews were on the property for only nine days last year and one day this year, according to city records, far less than another home up the street that nobody is complaining about.

Slotkin, 53, portrays the dispute as a personal feud stemming from a comment Slotkin made years before to Cohen’s wife. He also says Yaroslavksy has not forgotten that he tried and failed to limit the size of Slotkin’s 28,000-square-foot home while it was under construction.

Last month, Yaroslavsky ordered a filming permit pulled the night before shooting was to begin for an episode of “Burke’s Law,” a television show. A permit to film an R. C. Cola commercial also was held up. The makers of “Burke’s Law” had agreed to pay $10,000 for a day’s shoot, while the cola maker would have paid $9,000 for a day.

Slotkin has filed a complaint with the city Ethics Commission, accusing Yaroslavksy of abusing his power by interfering with Slotkin’s ability to film at the home. Yaroslavsky says it is Slotkin who is overstepping his bounds.

“He has tried to push his weight around and we just won’t budge,” Yaroslavsky said. “It is not right for one person, no matter how powerful he is, no matter how big he is, no matter how big his home is, to impose this kind of hardship on his neighbors.”

This is not the first time Slotkin has appeared in the limelight. He built the home near where Erik and Lyle Menendez killed their parents, and testified on their behalf at their murder trial. He keeps in touch with the jailed brothers by telephone. The neighborhood also has had its share of attention: Heidi Fleiss, alleged madam to the stars, lives down the road.

A contentious hearing before the city’s Board of Public Works this month failed to resolve whether restrictions on the Slotkin home were needed. In a closed-door session Wednesday, film representatives, city officials and residents again failed to reach an agreement. The matter will go to the Board of Public Works for a resolution Friday.

Such filming squabbles pop up with some regularity.

Last month, the city ordered a company that was producing a rap video in South-Central Los Angeles to halt in midproduction. It seems Border Films was employing gang members, who were flashing signs and wearing gang paraphernalia, within sight of an elementary school.

Last fall, a judge upheld a suit filed by a group of Hermosa Beach residents and ordered “Beverly Hills, 90210” to stop filming at an oceanfront home.

Two years ago, it was an exclusive Hollywood Hills address that stirred rage among neighbors. The Ennis House, built by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1924, had appeared in “Blade Runner,” “Grand Canyon” and other productions. The city slapped restrictions on the property: just nine filming permits per year, a limit of three trucks and one generator on the streets and a requirement that crew members be bused into the neighborhood.

At a hearing last month on Slotkin’s home, industry representatives outnumbered the handful of residents pushing for a crackdown on filming.

“California has from Day One used its neighborhoods as a back lot and it would be terribly detrimental to the California economy if the industry was forced out of the state because of controversy between the industry and communities,” said Patti Archuletta, executive director of the California Film Commission.

“Residents hopefully will think more globally. They don’t just live on a block. Their entire lifestyle is helped by a thriving entertainment industry.”