Neighbors Say Developer Used Maneuver to Beat New Zoning

A three-story office building under construction on the former site of the Hungry Tiger steakhouse in Sherman Oaks has come to symbolize another kind of craving to its neighbors: their hunger for the Ventura Boulevard specific plan to take effect.

It’s not that the defunct restaurant was a beloved architectural landmark, or that its replacement is especially large or offensive, activists concede. It’s that the developer has managed to beat enactment of the new zoning measure, a bureaucratic feat enabling him to build a bigger, taller structure than might be permitted in just a few weeks.

“We have serious questions as to how this got approved so quickly without any public input,” said Richard Close, president of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn. “Once again, a big problem is that it doesn’t comply with the specific plan, and by avoiding any public hearing, they’ve apparently been able to beat the specific plan.”

Prompted by the association’s concerns, Councilman Michael Woo’s office looked into the project at Greenbush Avenue and Ventura Boulevard but found nothing improper in the way the building permit was issued.

“I think the developer was trying to rush to get going before the plan is approved by the council,” Woo said. “But as far as I can tell there is no evidence of wrongdoing here. We’re upset about it and trying to monitor the project, but at this point, I know of no legal obstacle to him.”

Developer Itzcik Weinstein said he plans to meet with homeowners next month to answer their questions. “I myself have lived in the neighborhood over nine years and have two children,” he said. Weinstein said he lives a block from his project site and said he believes it will be very good for the neighborhood.

Weinstein bought the restaurant site about a year ago. He obtained his building permit in late July and began construction last month, according to homeowners and Woo’s staff.

Current plans--consistent with Ventura Boulevard’s interim zoning ordinance--call for an underground parking garage, a single retail store on the first floor and two stories of offices.

If the proposed specific plan were in effect, Weinstein would have been able to build only two stories above ground and the size of his structure, about 25,000 square feet, would have been 50% smaller.

The specific plan, in the works about five years, is under review by the city attorney’s office and is scheduled for a hearing Oct. 2 before the City Council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee. Woo said he hopes the zoning ordinance will reach the full council for a vote “within a few weeks after that.”

The homeowners association has also raised questions about the way Weinstein obtained his building permit--by going to three branches of the city Building and Safety Department instead of the usual practice of using one.

Jan Perry, a Woo planning deputy, said Weinstein’s method was “odd, but it’s not illegal.”

The developer submitted his plans to the Van Nuys branch of the building department, which has jurisdiction over Sherman Oaks, had them approved in the West Valley office and obtained his building permit downtown.

Weinstein said he did that for convenience. A Weinstein employee had to be in the West Valley building department office to check on another project, and so he took the paperwork there, he said. Similarly, Weinstein said, he was checking on another matter in City Hall and completed the paperwork there.

Tom Grant, a nearby homeowner, questioned why Weinstein received a building permit without any public hearing, even though his commercial project abuts a residential neighborhood.

Woo said no hearings were scheduled because the structure required no variances.

A mini-mall review wasn’t needed because Weinstein’s plans call for only a single store on the first floor, Woo said.

And the project is exempt from a “commercial corner” review--applicable when a commercial project abuts a single-family residence--because the closest structure is a duplex, according to Perry.