Couple Scrap Plan for Home on Calabasas Mountain Ridge

A Tarzana couple has withdrawn its appeal of a recent city decision rejecting its plans to build a luxury home on a mountain ridge, officials said Tuesday.

The action by Pamela and Richard Aronoff effectively ends a two-year battle in which they collided with homeowners’ associations that opposed construction of the 23,000-square-foot house. Pamela Aronoff said she and her husband were tired of fighting with neighbors.

“We’re going to sell the property and look for one someplace else,” she said Tuesday. “It’s not worth being this much a target of people’s anger.”

The Aronoffs had appealed a June planning commission vote rejecting their bid for a conditional use permit to build the house. Commissioners had said the site was on a significant ridgeline protected by the city’s General Plan. The appeal was scheduled to be reviewed tonight by the City Council.

The Aronoffs had been engaged in a protracted battle with homeowners’ associations, which represent thousands of Calabasas residents.

When residents saw the plan for the three interconnected structures, some called it innovative, while others dismissed it as looking like a radar station. Others opposed building on the ridgeline.

Because the lot is on Saint Andrews Lane, a gated street just outside the Mulholland Highway Scenic Corridor, the Aronoffs faced strict guidelines. The land, which they bought two years ago, had been graded for construction when it was under county jurisdiction.

The Aronoffs said the house, which would have been built on 2 1/2 acres, was designed by acclaimed architect Eric Owen Moss specifically for the site and could not be built anywhere else.

The Aronoffs, who manage and own properties in Warner Center in Woodland Hills, bought the lot for $600,000 and spent another $300,000 on construction preparation, design plans and presentations to the city.