Rocky Mountain

It’s a place of quiet beauty that offers the promise of inner peace.

So why is a garden-like hilltop near downtown Los Angeles the center of a fight that is turning so loud and ugly?

That’s the question these days in Mount Washington, where residents debating a proposal to enlarge a religious group’s world headquarters are arguing instead over just who is looking out for their community’s best interest.

One side contends that the Self-Realization Fellowship has commandeered the respected Mount Washington Assn. with the intention of muzzling residents’ opposition to the church’s expansion.

The other side asserts that development opponents have formed a renegade residents group--one that specifically excludes hundreds of fellowship members living in Mount Washington--and are trying to make themselves the new official “voice” of the community.

The issue of who speaks for residents of Mount Washington could become crucial a year from now when city officials consider whether to authorize the church’s $40-million expansion.

Based since 1925 in a onetime resort hotel atop Mt. Washington, the Self-Realization Fellowship is a nondenominational church that teaches a blend of Eastern and Western philosophies.

It wants to make more room at its garden-like headquarters for monks and nuns studying to live what church leaders describe as “a balanced life of prayer, meditation and community service.”

Opponents complain that the project will cause turmoil in a residential enclave that prides itself on a tranquil, rural atmosphere that is a 10-minute drive from the Los Angeles Civic Center.

The Civic Center is where both sides will be lobbying City Council members when the development’s conditional-use permit application comes up for review in late 1999. Both sides are aware that council members are reluctant to make changes in a neighborhood when there is a major community outcry against it.

Leaders of the Mount Washington Assn. began raising objections to the phased, 30-year development plan late last year. Using fliers and newsletters sent to residents, the leaders questioned the project’s size and environmental impact.

Those mailings irritated fellowship members, many of whom are Mount Washington homeowners. Ninety others live in 15 church-owned group homes on the hillside and 115 more live in a monastery and a nunnery on church grounds.

Fellowship members allegedly responded by joining the Mount Washington Assn. en masse--paying $15 annual dues and becoming voting members.

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At the association’s March meeting, newcomers helped push through a rules change designed to limit criticism about the church project. It requires association leaders to remain neutral about the project unless the entire association membership votes to take a position on it.

The new rule, approved by a vote of 54-26, outraged project opponents.

Complaining that the gag order effectively cut off debate over the church development, opponents hastily formed their new residents group--and approved their own strict rules to keep the Self-Realization Fellowship out.

“Just like the Boy Scouts, we don’t have to admit everyone,” said Daniel Wright, president of the new organization. “We did our research.”

Wright, a lawyer, said the new group is called CANDER, which stands for “Conditional use permit of 3880 San Rafael Dr., Analysis, Negotiation, Dissemination & Enforcement Round table.” The address refers to the location of the fellowship’s hilltop headquarters.

“You can’t be a member of the round table if you have a beneficial interest in the development of 3880 San Rafael,” Wright said. Church members can pay to get on the round table’s mailing list, but “they can’t come to meetings or vote,” he said.

Organizers of the month-old group, who say they will disband after the church development issue is resolved, say their membership is quickly growing. They have already contacted representatives of Jackie Goldberg and Mike Hernandez, the two council members whose districts include Mount Washington.

But the new group’s exclusivity irritates Self-Realization Fellowship followers in Mount Washington.

“The approach they’re taking is very confrontational,” said Hank Shaeffer, an art designer who has lived on the hilltop for nearly half of the 25 years he has been a fellowship member.

“I don’t think they speak for Mount Washington. I think the City Council offices know who represents Mount Washington. . . . I think the council members know what’s going on.”

City officials said both sides have already started lobbying to be the community voice.

“This is a fun one,” Ed Reyes, chief of staff for Hernandez, said sarcastically Thursday. He said he is hoping the rival groups settle their differences.

“We want to keep communities whole,” he said. “That means creating compromises.”

Gerald Gubatan, planning deputy for Goldberg, predicted that the credibility of those representing the two groups will be scrutinized as the development application makes its way through the zoning review process. Either side can appeal the zoning administrator’s ruling to the City Council.

Goldberg, meanwhile, suggested that both groups are bona fide voices of the community. “More than one organization can speak for a community,” she said.

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Ironically, it was a development dispute that led to the formation of the Mount Washington Assn. in 1955. Residents organized to block construction of a landfill earmarked for one of Mount Washington’s canyons.

Since then, the group has been involved in other land-use issues. It has successfully fought construction of large homes on small hillside lots, blocked construction of a 198-unit apartment complex and increased the amount of Mt. Washington parkland from about 2 1/2 acres to nearly 66.

Clare Marter Kenyon, a former president of the Mount Washington Assn., said church members living in fellowship-owned homes and monastery rooms were able to join the association because its bylaws were changed years ago to allow renters as well as homeowners to belong.

Still, the fellowship members’ appearance was a jolt, she said.

“I was at the March 16 meeting when suddenly we had 110 people where usually we have 40 or 50,” said Kenyon, a librarian at the local Mount Washington Elementary School. “It was clear that the Mount Washington Assn.’s effectiveness was greatly reduced.”

Another former Mount Washington Assn. president, Louis Mraz, said the Self-Realization Fellowship development is too large for the neighborhood.

He said the proposed enlargement of the church headquarters will create traffic problems on the hillside’s narrow streets and grading for the project will require the removal of 7,000 truckloads of dirt.

“They’re proposing 434,344 square feet of new construction. That’s the equivalent of four Home Depots on top of this hill. I’m looking at a developer who is overbuilding beyond the community’s wildest dreams,” said Mraz, an architect.

Current association President Steve Kaufman said he is uncertain how many church members have joined his group because members are not asked their religion affiliation.

Kaufman, a lawyer, said he does not feel that the fellowship has seized control of the association, although “there’s no question the [fellowship] is probably in a better position to mobilize its members and has resources other interests on the hill do not have.”

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The association’s next general meeting is planned for 7:30 p.m. Monday. Scheduled for discussion are such routine matters as fire-season brush clearance and long-term issues facing land along the Los Angeles River near Dodger Stadium.

Fellowship leaders, meantime, deny that there has been any organized attempt by the church to take over the Mount Washington Assn.

“A number of [fellowship] members live in the community,” said Miles Hyde, a Self-Realization Fellowship monk who is in charge of the community-outreach program. “Of course when something takes place of interest to them they’ll attend a community meeting.”

Hyde said fellowship founder Paramahansa Yogananda purchased the former Mount Washington Hotel 73 years ago to be the group’s international headquarters “for many of the same reasons” that current residents have been drawn to the hilltop: its rural environment and convenient access to downtown.

The church has no intention of doing anything that will change that atmosphere, added another monk, Dennis White.

“We’re very sad that some treat us as outside developers,” White said. “We’re also interested in the quality of life here. We live here. We’re going to be here the next 100 years.”

White said his church has been an active part of the community, doing things like hosting an annual Halloween party for local children and holding meetings to keep residents apprised of the development plans.

He said there is no need for dueling Mount Washington homeowner groups.

“We’re doing our best to be good neighbors,” he said.