CHATSWORTH : Decision Bodes Ill for Ostrich, Emu Owners

Los Angeles City Council will soon consider a recommendation made Tuesday that it bar a Chatsworth couple from keeping ostriches and emus on their farm because neighbors are plagued by odors and dust from the farm.

The recommendation came from council’s Planning and Land Use Committee, whose decision upheld an Oct. 4 order by the Board of Zoning Appeals that David and Monica Mohilef, owners of Danielle Michelle Farms in northern Chatsworth, get rid of their approximately 800 birds.

Last July, Associate Zoning Administrator Daniel Green ruled that the Mohilefs must reduce their flock by 605 to 195. That decision was appealed to the Planning and Land Use Committee.

The farm’s owners are allowed to keep horses and other kinds of animals on their property, Green said Tuesday, as long as they do not do so as a money-making operation.

The final decision is up to the City Council, which is scheduled to consider the issue Feb. 28.

City Council members Hal Bernson and Laura Chick, who serve on the Planning and Land Use Committee, said they were ruling against the bird farm because of neighbors’ complaints and because they believe the farm is a business.

A commercial enterprise is not allowed on the Mohilefs’ eight-acre property, which is zoned for agricultural purposes.

After a Monteria Estates neighbor of the Mohilefs quipped that the only “chicks” that would be welcome in the neighborhood would be the councilwoman and her family, Chick said, “I do not intend to stick my head in the sand on this one.”

Jay Bulmash, an attorney for the Mohilefs, denied that the ostrich and emu farm is a business venture, saying that the birds are being raised merely for research and study purposes. Bulmash also contended that the Board of Zoning Appeals decision was improper because, he said, only a zoning administrator can rule that a type of use be stopped.

Greg Butts, whose property is next to the Mohilefs, said he is pleased by the committee’s decision, but noted that the case will likely go to court and expressed concern over how long neighbors will have to put up with the odor and dust problems.