Tiff Over Result of Wilshire Project Lingers

Beverly Hills homeowners have signed a peace treaty with city officials to end a dispute over conversion of Wilshire Boulevard office towers into apartment dwellings.

But despite an agreement signed in Los Angeles Superior Court, the two sides remain at war over which has emerged as the winner of a 16-month squabble over turning commercial offices into dwelling units.

Homeowners assert that they forced the city to scrap plans to rezone a 12-block stretch of the busy business street to allow for residential use. In the process, they claim, they managed to oust Beverly Hills’ mayor from City Hall.

Officials retort that homeowners did no such thing. The city contends that the apartment project that triggered the dispute will still be built -- and that the mayor who was defeated in her bid for reelection this year lost for other reasons.

The agreement was reached last week. It settles a lawsuit filed by homeowners alleging that the Beverly Hills City Council “embarked on a deliberate campaign to deceive the public” about the legality of the office-to-apartment conversion plan.

“This shows that old adage that you can’t fight City Hall is nothing but a fairy tale,” said homeowner Alfred Omansky, chairman of Save Our Neighborhood’s Integrity, a residents group that was organized to fight the apartment conversions. “If a community feels threatened by bureaucratic action, they have a remedy: Unite and go to court if need be.”

Baloney, said city officials.

“That’s a tremendous mischaracterization,” said Larry Wiener, city attorney for Beverly Hills. “I wouldn’t call it ‘beating City Hall’.... The apartment approval still stands. They just dropped their lawsuit.”

The dispute began in fall 2002 when city officials revealed a proposal to change the zoning of a commercially designated section of Wilshire Boulevard to allow office towers to be turned into apartment buildings.

The “adaptive reuse” plan -- which included the landmark Flynt Publications tower at Wilshire and La Cienega boulevards -- would help the city cope with a growing housing shortage, city planners argued.

But those living in nearby neighborhoods of single-family homes protested after learning the new apartments would have balconies and rooftop recreation areas overlooking their homes and backyards.

“None of us mind the office buildings. They’re only occupied 9 to 5 and there’s no one there on weekends,” explained Carol Ward, who has lived in a 1920s Tudor-style home for more than three decades.

The Save Our Neighborhood’s Integrity group hired lawyer Robert P. Silverstein to fight the rezoning plan. The city dropped a major portion of the rezoning proposal as he challenged its legality on grounds that it violated state environmental laws.

But the dispute heated up in January when Silverstein obtained what he described as a “leaked secret memo” that he said proved that the city knew the offices-to-apartments plan might be illegal. When a second, allegedly “sanitized” memo that downplayed the possible legal problems was released to the public, homeowners condemned it as a City Hall coverup.

The city denied wrongdoing, and a city lawyer criticized Silverstein for being in unauthorized possession of confidential city paperwork.

Sparks flew again in March when residents accused the city of censorship in editing an exchange between Silverstein and Mayor MeraLee Goldman out of a videotape of a City Council town hall forum and council candidate debate that aired on the city’s local government cable channel.

City officials who oversaw the taping denied censoring Silverstein, explaining that they omitted his comments because they did not deem them to be part of the candidates’ debate.

Goldman was voted off the City Council in the March election, losing by 156 votes. Homeowners fighting the apartments claimed responsibility for her ouster, boasting that the margin of victory for Goldman’s challenger came from their neighborhood’s two election precincts.

“The neighborhood papered the east side of Beverly Hills with fliers endorsing her opponent, Jimmy Delshad, and sponsored a campaign coffee for him,” Silverstein said this week. “The homeowners trounced an incumbent mayor of Beverly Hills and fired a warning shot across the bow of the other City Council members.”

That assessment was challenged by Goldman.

“They’re taking credit for something that didn’t happen,” she said Thursday. “There was a real movement against third terms. And Mr. Delshad was the first Iranian candidate, and his candidacy brought many new voters out.”

City Atty. Wiener said residents also are taking credit for something that didn’t happen in court.

“I’m surprised that Mr. Silverstein would characterize his settlement with the developers as a victory over the city. The city did not change the approval of a mixed-used development at Wilshire and Stanley,” he said.

The agreement states that the office building at the corner of Wilshire and Stanley that triggered the 12-block rezoning proposal can be converted into 37 apartments.

But no balconies will be allowed to overlook neighboring homes and limitations will be placed on apartment recreation-area activities to ensure neighborhood noise and privacy protection. Tenants of the building will not be allowed to own pets.

Traffic restrictions around the new apartment building will prohibit occupants from turning from their building into the neighborhood and will ban trucks and moving vans from parking on Stanley Drive.

As part of the deal, the apartments’ developers will pay the homeowners’ $229,000 legal bill.

“I’d say it’s a victory for the city,” Wiener said.

“Save Our Neighborhood’s Integrity is extremely pleased with the settlement,” Silverstein said.