City Rejects Offer to Settle Schools’ Warner Center Suit : Development: The district requested $5 million to compensate for the noise and traffic likely to be generated by the proposed expansion.

Meeting behind closed doors, the Los Angeles City Council rejected an offer Wednesday to settle a school district lawsuit over a proposed expansion of the Warner Center development in Woodland Hills, officials said.

The suit, filed by the Los Angeles Unified School District in July, contends that the city approved an expansion plan for the center without adequately considering how extra noise and traffic might affect students at nearby schools.

In its settlement offer, the district asked for more than $5 million to install air conditioners at Parkman Middle School and Canoga Park High School so students can shut the windows to keep out noise and dust, according to City Hall sources.

The council rejected the offer and instructed its attorneys to return to the bargaining table. But, Councilwoman Laura Chick, who represents the Warner Center area, does not foresee an out-of-court settlement.

“No, I’m not optimistic because the message I’m getting from LAUSD is that they are not going to be flexible,” she said after the closed-door meeting.

Chick said she urged the council not to agree to a cash settlement. Instead, the council should offer to help the district get money for the air conditioners from state school officials in Sacramento, she said.

“To have one part of the city’s family slugging it out in court with another part is a sorry state,” she said.

The school district is willing to continue settlement discussions, said Brad Hogin, a private attorney hired by the district to handle the suit. But he said the district will not back down on getting the air conditioners.

He said the increased traffic from the proposed expansion is “like putting a freeway next to the schools” and “the school district wants to ensure that the schools are protected.”

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The result of nearly eight years of study and negotiation, the guide to development and traffic improvements at Warner Center was approved by the City Council in June. It permits 35.7 million square feet of development in the 1,100-acre center near Topanga Canyon Boulevard and the Ventura Freeway. The total includes 15 million square feet already built.

School board President Mark Slavkin said the city should pay for the air conditioners from fees that are required of Warner Center developers to reduce traffic problems.

“The ball is in their court,” he said.

The school district’s lawsuit is not without precedent. Last year the district sued Burbank Airport, claiming a proposed expansion of the terminal would increase noise at adjacent schools. The airport settled the lawsuit by agreeing to pay $500,000 and seek $2 million in federal grants to soundproof and install air conditioning at two nearby schools.