RESEDA : Home for Aging’s Expansion Protested

The Jewish Home for the Aging, seeking to expand its residential campus, has encountered vigorous opposition to the new construction from its Reseda neighbors.

Letter-writing campaigns and petition drives have swept through neighborhoods surrounding the elder-care facility. More than 20 residents attended a mid-day zoning hearing Monday to testify against a city permit and zone variance needed to allow construction to begin.

Daniel Green, an associate zoning administrator for the city of Los Angeles, will take additional testimony until Dec. 5 before deciding the case.

Residents of the single-family, mostly single-story neighborhood resent a proposed addition to the home’s main building that would raise it from one story to five stories. Two three-story buildings would be constructed in addition to the two constructed earlier this year. Altogether, the home seeks more than 212,000 square feet in new construction on the site.

Home officials also want permission to use five single-family homes in the neighborhood to house 40 of the facility’s residents.

At the hearing, officials of the home repeatedly identified it as a not-for-profit facility relying on fund-raising and generosity to meet $9 million of a nearly $22-million budget. One neighbor, however, lambasted the home, calling it a big business “operating under the guise of care for the elderly . . . (and) encroaching on the rights of the individual.”

Neighbors foresee traffic problems on their quiet, child-laden streets, as well as noise pollution from a public address system used during outdoor parties, which required calls to the police before they were quieted.

Resident Charlotte Baker testified that “(the proposed construction) would constitute an unlawful taking of our property by substantially diminishing its value.”

Harry Musolff, a resident of the neighborhood since 1956, said he has watched the home expand over the years and, until now, never complained. “But this will block my view of the mountains,” he said, emotion obvious in his voice. “I am entitled to that damn view.”

Bob Hirsch, a board member of the home, said: “If we have let the neighborhood down in any way, we deeply regret it and are willing to do what it takes to reach a compromise with them. We have always only wanted to be good neighbors.”

Neither side brought in attorneys to represent them in the dispute.

Opponents and proponents of the proposal are encouraged to register their testimony with Green by mail at the Office of Zoning Administration, Room 600, Los Angeles City Hall, 200 N. Spring St., Los Angeles 90012.