Council OKs Condos Despite Objections

A plan to build 48 two-story condominiums on the site of an old hospital in West Hills sailed through the Los Angeles City Council Wednesday, unscathed by the fierce opposition of neighbors living in nearby single-story homes.

About 30 opponents, many of them elderly residents, filed into council chambers for the unanimous vote to develop the 4.37-acre property at 22141 Roscoe Blvd. They booed Councilman Hal Bernson, who said the project was the best option for his northwest Valley area. “I have to do what I think is right for my district,” he said.

High-density projects are allowed under current zoning for the site. Bernson said the condominium development, scaled down from the 60 units initially sought by the applicant, Encino-based Triad Healthcare, would “prevent some other kind of use that could be much worse.”

“If you felt so strongly about it,” Bernson snapped, “you should have bought it and built the [single-story] homes there that you wanted, because no one else would.”

Michael Cohen, a resident who helped gather nearly 1,000 signatures of opponents, told the council “the proposed density is in stark contrast to the character and scale of our single-family neighborhood.” He contended the city had mistakenly classified the complex--whose units will be detached--as single-family housing.

At a previous hearing, about a dozen residents testified they feared the condos would strain the capacity of local schools, sewage pipes and roads. The council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee approved the project, which Harbor Commissioner Ted Stein intends to develop, on a 3-0 vote two weeks ago.

The council agreed only to a few small modifications, including additional landscaping along an 8-foot perimeter wall.

Opponents were dejected after the 14-0 vote.

“It’s terrible,” resident Paul McKeehan said. “I am absolutely amazed that Councilman Bernson portrayed his support of the project as being benevolent on our behalf. . . . We’re being patted on the head and told to be quiet, that it’s already been decided, and that the outcry of 1,000 residents is insignificant.”