Panel Delays Construction of 14 Homes on Hillside

A Los Angeles city panel has delayed construction of additional houses on a steep Laurel Canyon hillside, warning that a developer faces a long list of questions that need answering.

Members of the Mulholland Scenic Corridor Design Review Board on Thursday night ordered builder Yehuda Arviv to submit detailed plans for 14 homes that he hopes to construct on a 45-degree slope near the top of the canyon.

Residents of the canyon who are angry over five other houses Arviv is building on the hillside say they will return Oct. 19 to argue that more homes there will be an eyesore and a danger to their neighborhood.

Arviv’s planned houses would average about 3,000 square feet. They are proposed for lots that were subdivided 77 years ago as weekend mountain cabin sites for Los Angeles city dwellers.

Opponents say that the 1923 subdivision map depicts flat-looking lots neatly lined up along what appear to be city-style streets, instead of a mountainous terrain that is almost too rugged for conventional homes and roads.

“There is a whole long list of things that need to be clarified,” city planner Richard Plotkin said Friday. If the review board is not satisfied with Arviv’s plans, it can recommend that the city withhold permission to build, Plotkin said.

Arviv, who was not required by the city to submit plans for his first five homes to the Mulholland board, contends that the city is required by law to issue him permits for a total of 21 homes on his five-acre site because of the 1923 subdivision.

“They will be spectacular homes. People should kiss me for building them,” he said this week.