BUILDER GETS PANEL'S OK FOR HOUSING; 454 APARTMENT UNITS APPROVED.

Byline: Gregory J. Wilcox Daily News Staff Writer

Deciding it's the best use for the site, the Los Angeles City Planning Commission on Thursday gave a developer the option to build a $100 million housing project on a hilltop overlooking Warner Center.

The unusual ruling could ultimately give Katell Warner Associates LLC a choice of building either a sprawling commercial project or more than 400 apartments, depending on market conditions.

But all parties at the commission hearing at the Sherman Oaks Woman's Club, including developer Jerry Katell and a spokeswoman for Los Angeles City Councilwoman Laura Chick, agreed that the residential path is the more prudent to take.

The plan must still be approved by two more regulatory bodies, including the City Council. If it is, Katell said he will immediately hire an architect and start work on the project at the northeast corner of Oxnard Street and DeSoto Avenue, an area known as Warner Ridge.

Preliminary plans call for the buildings to be between two and four stories tall, depending on where they are located on the 16-1/2 acre site. Construction could start in nine months, he said.

Katell said that he will file for a condominium subdivision, which gives him the leeway to rent the units as apartments or eventually sell them.

His parcel, which is adjacent to Pierce College, is already entitled for 690,000 square feet of commercial space and 850,000 square feet of parking facilities, something opposed by homeowners in the area. Mindful of that resistance, Katell said he has already spent $500,000 pursuing a plan for multifamily housing.

``It's pretty clear that we want residential use. That's why we are here,'' Katell told the commission, which approved his request on a 4-to-0 vote.

He wanted to build 471 units, but the commission approved 454.

``That's less than most projects in Warner Center,'' Katell said of his plan. ``We're trying to make this work, and if I can the 471, I think I can make it work.''

About half a dozen residents attended the meeting and all supported a residential project. But a few did not like the idea of giving Katell an option because that still makes the commercial project a possibility.

``I'm asking you to protect the public and not make this open-ended. If he wants residential, give him residential,'' said Gordon Murley, president of the Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization.

Murley has no objection to Katell's building apartments as long as the project is recorded as a condominium tract, which has more stringent building standards.

But Robert Gross, former president of the organization, said that giving Katell a choice hedges the community's bet in getting the most compatible project built.

``If this commission refuses to support it, we're going to end up with a commercial development that's not appropriate,'' Gross said.

The commission acknowledged that it cannot prevent Katell from building a commercial project because of a lawsuit the city lost about 10 years ago. Warner Ridge had already been designated for commercial use, but the city changed the zoning to permit-only residential development.

The landowner at the time, who wanted to put up offices, sued the city and won. And an appeals court upheld the verdict.

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Map: Warner Ridge project