Judge OKs Settlement on Warner Center

A Superior Court judge accepted a settlement Tuesday in the Los Angeles Unified School District’s lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles over the city’s Warner Center Specific Plan.

The school district and the city ratified the agreement in separate actions last week, but Superior Court Judge David Yaffe’s approval of the settlement was needed to officially bring the lawsuit to a close.

The school district agreed to allow the specific plan to stand pending the findings of a supplemental environmental impact report studying the impacts of development on two area schools, Canoga Park High School and Parkman Middle School.

The school district had won a significant victory when an appellate court ruled that the city should not have approved the Specific Plan in 1993 without considering the impact of development on those campuses.

As a result, the lower court was under an obligation to invalidate the plan and have the city start from scratch. However, by doing that, several key development projects in Warner Center would have been threatened.

The settlement gives the city a measure of confidence to guide future development in the commercial area.

“We’re very pleased that we’ve reached an agreement with the school district that will keep in place effective controls on development in Warner Center,” said Ken Bernstein, planning deputy for City Councilwoman Laura Chick, who represents the area.

The city is currently working on the supplemental environment impact report to determine air quality and traffic impacts and is expected to have a draft available within six months.