Ridge-Top Plan for House Faces Uphill Battle

It is the perfect place for a view home--a piece of land jutting high above the city, surrounded by Runyon Canyon Park on one of the last untouched ridgelines in the eastern Santa Monica Mountains.

It is also shaping up as the first major battleground over a 3-year-old city law designed to protect Mulholland Drive neighborhoods from urban sprawl.

A Beverly Hills jeweler paid $2 million for the ridge four years ago, intending to build a two-story, 10,000-square-foot home inspired by designs of architect Lloyd Wright.

But it has been a tough gem to polish.

This morning, property owner Robert W. Lyons will find himself at the center of a dispute that could test a broad new set of mountain development rules. He faces a group of conservationists at a Planning Commission hearing on his construction proposal--a proposal that, if approved, could become the first project to duck key provisions of the Mulholland Scenic Parkway Specific Plan.

The 2-year-old parkway plan--a product of 21 years of intense debate between environmentalists and developers--bars new construction on prominent ridges visible from Mulholland Drive and the erection of any structures within 200 feet of a public park in the Santa Monica Mountains.

A city hearing examiner has recommended that the Planning Commission approve Lyons’ plans. The examiner said Lyons’ proposed home “would not be detrimental” to public enjoyment of the park and that the restrictions create a hardship.

To bolter his argument, a hearing examiner points out that Lyons’ four-acre property already contains a cottage designed in 1945 by Frank Lloyd Wright’s son Lloyd, and it has been designated as a Los Angeles cultural monument. Lyons proposes to make his new house an extension of that tiny, tree-shrouded structure--building on a portion of the hilltop that the younger Wright targeted for a main house that never was built.

That position has infuriated neighbors and state parkland officers, who fear that their success at winning protection for the Santa Monica Mountains would vanish if the city approves construction of the Lyons home.

Opponents have a history of winning these fights over construction in Runyon Canyon, including the rejection of a sprawling Frank Lloyd Wright-designed country club in the late 1940s, a luxury home development in the late 1970s and a giant Metro Rail subway ventilation tower last year.

“This project is so clearly in violation--it is a felony on top of a felony,” said Jerry Daniel, a board member of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, which purchases and manages parkland for the state.

Lyons declined to be interviewed, but a representative objected to the conservancy’s criticism.

“This is a legal lot and Mr. Lyons has the right to use it for a personal home,” Gary Ward said. “Emotionally and architecturally our plans are desirable for the area. This home will enhance the ridge.”

As evidence, Ward shows off a computer-enhanced photograph that illustrates how the house would look from Mulholland Drive. It shows a handsome, dun-colored home constructed from wood and field stone that appears to rise gracefully from the ridge crest, blending in with the mountains behind a screen of trees.

Ward said his client has refused to scale down the size or change the position of the house despite meetings with the citizens design board, the conservancy and the staff of City Council President John Ferraro.

“We hit a home run, what’s to compromise?” Ward said of the design. “To compromise it is to not build it.”

Not building it would suit many critics, though it could expose the city to a lawsuit, said Alonzo Carmichael, planning officer for the Department of Recreation and Parks.

“If we oppose it and he can’t build, then he could sue the city for inverse condemnation,” Carmichael said.

This official stance does not deter Steven Soboroff, president of the city’s Recreation and Parks Commission, from expressing his distaste for the proposal.

“The fact that the home will be beautiful isn’t important,” said Soboroff, a businessman who heads a task force that is attempting to streamline Los Angeles building permit rules. “What’s meaningful is how it approaches the park from the park’s point of view, not from the owner’s point of view. This project needs variance after variance after variance. We don’t need any more of these things.”

Jenifer Palmer-Lacey, who runs a park support group called Friends of Runyon Canyon, said approval of the project would set a dangerous precedent for home builders who might seek their own exceptions to the specific plan.