Residents Gain Key Density Victory

A group of Studio City residents have scored a key victory in their fight against development by persuading a City Council committee to recommend reversal of an earlier decision allowing higher and denser building.

The city Planning Commission last year approved zoning that would have allowed construction of structures up to 45 feet in height and up to 10 units per lot on Tujunga Avenue between Valley Spring Lane and Woodridge Street.

But the City Council’s Planning and Land Use Committee recommended last week that the full council limit structures to a maximum height of 25 feet, and allow only about one-third as many total units.

If approved by the City Council as expected, the decision would settle a four-year dispute between property owners and neighbors.

“This is mainly to keep this street from being overdeveloped,” said Ann Marie Roos, associate planning deputy for Councilman John Ferraro. “We want to make it more compatible with the rest of the street.”

The president of a local residents’ association that had been fighting for the tighter restrictions welcomed the news.

“What we’re doing is preserving the integrity of the neighborhood,” said Tony Lucente, president of the Studio City Residents Assn. “We mobilized the neighborhood to fight this every step of the way.”