Hilltop Home Faces Environmental Fight : Planning: Sprawling house proposed above Runyon Canyon Park would be first to skirt scenic parkway protection plan.

It is the perfect place for a view home--a rustic prow 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.

The wooded property 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.

This morning, Beverly Hills jeweler Robert W. Lyons faces a group of conservationists in a Los Angeles Planning Commission hearing over his plans to build a two-story, 10,000-square-foot home on the 4.8-acre property. If approved--and confirmed by the City Council--it would be the first project to duck key provisions of the Mulholland Scenic Parkway Specific Plan.

The parkway plan--which resulted from 21 years of intense debate between environmentalists and developers--bars new construction on prominent ridges visible from Mulholland Drive, as well as the building of any structures within 200 feet of a public park in the Santa Monica Mountains.

A city hearing examiner has recommended the Planning Commission approve Lyons’ proposal, saying the specific plan’s restrictions create a hardship for the property owner, while his proposed home “would not be detrimental” to popular Runyon Canyon Park.

To augment its argument, the examiner’s report points out longtime plans to build on Lyons’ property, which already contains a cottage designed by Frank Lloyd Wright’s son, Lloyd, in 1945. The tiny house was designated as a Los Angeles cultural monument three years ago. Lyons proposes to make his new house an extension of that tree-shrouded structure--building on a portion of the hilltop Wright had graded for a main house that was never built.

The city staffer’s position has infuriated neighbors and state parkland officers, who fear that protection for the Santa Monica Mountains will erode if the city approves construction of the Lyons home.

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

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

Lyons declined to be interviewed, but a representative objected to critics’ complaints.

“This is a legal lot and Mr. Lyons has the right to use it for a personal home,” said Gary Ward, who has tried to persuade opponents during appearances before a citizens panel that reviews home designs proposed for Mulholland Drive neighborhoods. “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 depicts a handsome, dun-colored home constructed from wood and flagstone that appears to rise gracefully from the ridge crest, partially hidden by a screen of trees.

Ward said his client has refused to scale down the size or change the position of the house despite suggestions received during 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?” said Ward of the design. “To compromise it is to not build it.”

That outcome 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,” said Carmichael.

The department’s official stance does not stop Steven Soboroff, president of the city’s Recreation and Parks Commission, from expressing his opposition to the proposal.

“The fact that the home will be beautiful isn’t important,” said Soboroff, who earns his living finding Los Angeles real estate for out-of-state retailers. “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.”

Indeed, a woman who runs a park support group believes approval of the project would set a “dangerous precedent” for home builders who might seek their own exceptions to the specific plan.

“What’s at stake here isn’t property rights, it’s the Mulholland Corridor,” said Jenifer Palmer-Lacy, director of Friends of Runyon Canyon. “For 20 years we sought a tool to maintain the beauty of the ridgelines, and builders want to whittle away little pieces of it at a time.”

She said she doesn’t object to Lyons building his home 50 feet below the ridgeline, though she’d prefer that he instead sell his property to the state for parkland. John Diaz, land acquisition chief for the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, said he has been stymied in attempts to buy the land by expensive appraisals that “cannot be justified.”

These judgments sting Ward, who considers himself a responsible home designer. He points to an immense, white, Mediterranean-style house perched on an adjacent ridge as an example of irresponsible hillside design.

He believes that if Lyons’ home is built, park aficionados will come to appreciate him as a neighbor.

“It’s like living next to a freeway,” said Ward. “You won’t notice it after two weeks. It would do the park more good than harm.”