COURT NULLIFIES WARNER CENTER PLAN.

Byline: Patrick McGreevy and Ben Sullivan Daily News Staff Writers

Planning rules that allow Warner Center to double its commercial and office space have been invalidated by a state appeals court that found the city failed to address air pollution and noise effects on nearby schools.

City attorneys and planners said they were not yet sure whether the ruling released Friday by the 2nd District Court of Appeal bars future development at Warner Center. They did not immediately know whether it delays or even derails any pending projects.

Los Angeles City Councilwoman Laura Chick said owners of the Topanga Plaza shopping mall had been considering expanding into Warner Center, and the court decision could delay those plans.

Officials from Westfield Corp. Inc., which manages the shopping center, could not be reached Friday for comment.

Also unclear is whether the court, by throwing out these zoning rules, is allowing Warner Center to revert to previous regulations that would allow even more extensive development at Warner Center.

The ruling leaves the city with three choices: to settle the lawsuit that prompted the court ruling, appeal the case to the state Supreme Court or redo the environmental impact report, a task that could take several months.

``My initial impression, without talking to the City Attorney's Office, is that everyone is a loser here. This is idiocy,'' Chick said. ``They threw out a land-use document that took eight years to develop and that impacts economic development.''

Officials with the Los Angeles Unified School District, which filed the lawsuit, contend the master plan would have allowed development harmful to students at Canoga Park High School and Parkman Junior High School.

``This will send the city back to the drawing board, and they will be forced to do it right,'' said Bradley Hogin, an attorney for the district.

Los Angeles Board of Education member Valerie Fields said the district is willing to enter into settlement talks that would preserve the specific plan but protect the children.

``I don't really feel it was the district's intent to upend the whole Warner Center Specific Plan and set back land-use planning a quarter of a century,'' Fields said. ``We are willing to talk to the city to take care of our schools so they can proceed with the plan.''

In 1994, the district had offered to settle the case in for $5 million, which would have included $3 million to pay for air conditioning at the two schools.

The city rejected the settlement offer.

Now the school system is embarking on a massive air-conditioning project with Proposition BB bond money.

``There is a funding mechanism in place to use public dollars to install air conditioning, something I've always wanted to see for my schools, and yet they continue this lawsuit against the city, the very government entity they should be partnering with,'' Chick said.

Fields said she is interested in working out a settlement.

``We'll sit down and talk and see what we can agree on,'' she said.

The Warner Center Specific Plan would have allowed 35.7 million square feet of new development over the next 20 years on the 926-acre area bounded by the Ventura Freeway, De Soto Avenue, Vanowen Street and Topanga Canyon Boulevard.

Chick said she plans to meet Monday with officials in the City Attorney's Office and Planning Department to determine the next step. She voiced anger at the school district's lawsuit and court decision. She said the decision jeopardizes the economy of the west San Fernando Valley by invalidating a well-thought-out plan for the orderly development of Warner Center.

She said the plan called for project builders to pay fees to the schools to deal with any adverse effects of the development.

``The result now is the court has not ordered the city (or developers) to install air conditioning,'' Chick said.

The three-judge panel found fatal flaws in the legally required environmental-impact report.

``We conclude the evidence in the record does not support the EIR's finding the plan will have no significant impact on traffic noise at Canoga Park High School and Parkman Junior High School,'' said the decision by Judges Mildred Lillie, Earl Johnson and Fred Woods.

The judges also ruled that the environmental report is inadequate ``for failing to discuss whether air conditioning and filtration are feasible measures for mitigating increased air pollution under the plan.''

The decision overturns a decision by Superior Court Judge Diane Wayne, who determined that the city's environmental study was adequate and correct when it said the project would not significantly harm the schools.

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