Temple Trims Project to Mollify Neighbors

Em-Habanim Sephardic Congregation Temple at a Monday neighborhood meeting will unveil scaled-back plans to expand its facilities and a proposal to lease parking from a nearly church.

After a previous plan to double the size of the temple at the intersection of Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Califa Street met with neighborhood opposition, the temple’s board of directors substantially curtailed the project, board member Joshua Bitan said.

“We have listened to the neighbors,” he said. “We have listened to the community. It is very important to us that our plans are in tune with the needs and wants of the neighbors.”

But some residents--complaining of traffic and parking woes--fear that the temple’s plan to share 71 parking spaces with the Bethany Foursquare Church across the street is infeasible.

Resident Janice Linden, for one, doubts that temple-goers will park in the designated lot, because that will mean having to cross the bustling thoroughfare.

Besides, she asked, the renewable lease with the church is guaranteed only for three years. If the church closes its doors, then what?

In August, Associate Zoning Administrator William Lillenberg refused a conditional use permit for Em-Habanim to build a 49-space parking lot on a single-family home section of Califa.

He further suggested that the temple scale back plans to add to its existing one-story building a two-story wing, which would house a social hall, a preschool and a kitchen. The project would have added 10,300 square feet to the 4,100-square-foot temple.

The new plans, Bitan said, are for a one-story addition of about 6,000 square feet, including a meeting room and a kitchen. The plans for a second-story preschool were scrapped, he said.

The temple, which opened more than a decade ago, is the place of worship for the families of some 120 Sephardic Jews.

After the community meeting, El Habanim will submit revised expansion and parking plans to Lillenberg, who can either uphold or reject them. His decisions can be appealed to the five-member city Board of Zoning Appeals.

The meeting will take place at 7 p.m. at the temple, 5850 Laurel Canyon Blvd., in North Hollywood.