Private deal being worked out to allow major S.F. Valley project.A real estate developer and the City of Los Angeles
An ordinance is a law passed by a municipal government. A municipality, such as a city, town, village, or borough, is a political subdivision of a state within which a municipal corporation has been nixed its proposed office project at the intersection intersection /in·ter·sec·tion/ (-sek´shun) a site at which one structure crosses another. intersection a site at which one structure crosses another. of Ventura Boulevard Ventura Boulevard is one of the primary east-west thouroughfares in the San Fernando Valley; as it was originally a part of the El Camino Real (the trail between Spanish missions), Ventura Boulevard is the oldest route in the San Fernando Valley. It was also U.S. and Woodman Avenue in Sherman Oaks. Beverly Hills-based Jama Construction Co., developing the project through a partnership called Ventura Woodman Associates, now wants the city to either approve a revised project, consisting of a 145-unit senior apartment complex, or pay it $10 million in damages. The legal action is just the latest example of San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. landowners and developers challenging the city's right to limit development on private land. Both Jama's original office proposal and its new senior housing proposal have hit brick walls because each would violate the height and density limits stipulated under the Ventura/Cahuenga Boulevard Corridor Specific Plan. That specific plan limits new building heights on Jama's site to 30 feet, which Jama's proposed three-story office project would exceed by five feet. Under its present proposal, Jama has come back with a completely different plan. It wants to build a 122,000-square-foot project containing 125 apartment units for senior citizens and 11,000 square feet of retail space. Just like its original office proposal, Jama's revised project would have three stories and would be 35 feet tall -- five feet above the limit. Richard Close, president of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association, insisted both the original office proposal and the senior apartment/retail complex are too dense and violate the specific plan, which the city passed in January 1991. The specific plan sets height and density limits for future development along Ventura Boulevard from Studio City to Woodland Hills. Close said changing development guidelines guidelines, n.pl a set of standards, criteria, or specifications to be used or followed in the performance of certain tasks. through lawsuits is dangerous because it precludes the public from the decision-making decision-making, n the process of coming to a conclusion or making a judgment. decision-making, evidence-based, n a type of informal decision-making that combines clinical expertise, patient concerns, and evidence gathered from process. "Our group (the Sherman Oaks Home Owners home owner home n → propriétaire occupant Association) pushed for the Ventura/Cahuenga Boulevard Corridor Specific Plan for six and a half years," groused Close, who is also a lawyer. "By filing a lawsuit, (Jama and its attorney) are trying to get a settlement on their proposal with no public hearing." "All the other developers (along Ventura Boulevard) have to follow the restrictions in the plan. It isn't fair to the community," Close concluded. Property owners on the side streets that intersect In a relational database, to match two files and produce a third file with records that are common in both. For example, intersecting an American file and a programmer file would yield American programmers. Ventura Boulevard fought for the specific plan because it makes developers provide ample parking for new projects. Side-street property owners have complained for years that increasing numbers of shoppers were parking in front of their homes because Ventura Boulevard shopkeepers didn't provide enough parking. Some long-time Ventura Boulevard property owners worry that new apartment and retail centers that have been built on key intersections will lure lure the skin-covered object which runs on a monorail on a Greyhound racing track and which the dogs are schooled to chase. The lure must be kept 30 to 40 ft ahead of the leading dog so that the field is stretched out. national discount retailers to the corridor and erode Erode (ĕrōd`), city (1991 urban agglomeration pop. 361,755), Tamil Nadu state, S India, on the Kaveri River. The city is located in a cotton-growing region, and its industries include cotton ginning and the manufacture of transport equipment. the mom-and-pop stores there, Close added. Jama's attorney, Benjamin Reznik of Sherman Oaks-based Reznik & Reznik Law Corp., sang a different song. He said his client, the Jama-led Ventura Woodman Associates partnership, was about to get final approval for its original proposal -- an 85,000-square-foot, three-story office project -- when the Los Angeles City Council  The Los Angeles City Council is the governing body of the City of Los Angeles, California, United States. approved the
Ventura/Cahuenga Boulevard Corridor Specific Plan in January 1991.
"Our clients had a commitment from a tenant who was to have leased the entire building," Reznik said. But neither Reznik nor his developer client would identify the alleged lost tenant. A Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. County Superior Court judge has already ruled against a portion of the lawsuit that calls for the City of Los Angeles to be forced to immediately issue a building permit for the proposed seniors apartment building. Reznik has appealed that ruling. Under the Ventura/Cahuenga Boulevard Corridor Specific Plan, a developer can build a maximum of 1.25 square feet of building space for each square foot of land. The ordinance also stipulates that the total square footage of any building can not exceed the total square footage of the lot. Since the specific plan also requires developers to provide parking and open space around new buildings, underground parking is often necessary. And developing subterranean parking is more expensive than above-ground parking, Reznik said. Deputy Los Angeles City Attorney The Los Angeles City Attorney is an elected official whose job is to prosecute all of the misdemeanor criminal offenses within the city of Los Angeles, California, United States. Susan Pfan said the city is working behind the scenes to reach an agreement with the Jama-led partnership. The pending lawsuit is just one example of San Fernando Valley landowners and developers challenging the city's right to limit development on private land. In the summer of 1991, Century City-based Spound Co. sued the City of L.A. for trying to downsize Downsize Reducing the size of a company by eliminating workers and/or divisions within the company. Notes: When a company downsizes, it is attempting to find ways to improve efficiency and increase profitability. It is sometimes referred to as trimming the fat. its proposed 810,000-square-foot Warner Ridge commercial development. City council members told Spound it must build houses on the property. The council was ultimately pressured to allow Spound to develop 671,000 square feet of offices, plus 13,000 square feet of retail, 6,000 square feet of restaurants and 125 residential units, said Jim Dawson, an assistant to L.A. City Councilwoman Joy Picus. "But the councilwoman doesn't agree with the council (vote to approve the Warner Ridge project) and didn't vote for it," Dawson said. The Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization didn't like the ruling either and, on Oct. 21, filed its own lawsuit against the city. Bob Gross, the president of the Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization, said the city's green light to Warner Ridge constitutes a violation of general plan amendments. By contrast, Spound Co. president Jack Spound insisted the Woodland Hills homeowners' legal challenge won't hold up in court. "We plan to start construction of the first 400,000 square feet of office buildings in spring 1993," Spound said. Spound Co. is developing Warner Ridge in joint venture with Racine, Wisc.-based Johnson Wax Development. In a separate action that liberalized developer entitlements in the San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles city planners and council members on Sept. 23 boosted development entitlements for the 974-acre Warner Center Specific Plan area of the west San Fernando Valley. The density limit for that area of Woodland Hills was raised from 27 million square feet of buildings to 35.7 million square feet, reported planning department officials. |
|
||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion