Builder’s Settlement With 2 Homeowners Fails to Mollify Others

A peace treaty between a Studio City developer and two homeowners has failed to heal wounds resulting from a dispute over the height of a new Ventura Boulevard office building.

Unhappy residents suggested Tuesday night that a personality clash between neighborhood leaders may have cost the community a chance to force builder Eitan Gonen to lower his $4.3-million Fairway Building.

Residents had protested that Gonen’s building is more than 95 feet tall although its building permit specified it would not exceed 45 feet.

Gonen last week signed a settlement with two adjacent property owners whose views were blocked by his building. He agreed to pay them an undisclosed sum in exchange for dropping a lawsuit against him and ending a Los Angeles city appeal against his development.

Another Voice

But if the Studio City Residents Assn. had become a party to the lawsuit, it would have had a voice in deciding whether or not to settle with Gonen, according to some association members.

The suit was filed in March by lawyer Daniel M. Shapiro, a former president of the association, on behalf of homeowners Charles Bernuth and Michael Minkow.

“I know Dan originally came to the association and asked if they wanted to join the lawsuit,” Bernuth told association members.

Not so, said Polly Ward, current association president.

“We were never invited to come in on the suit. We were asked to help pay for it,” Ward said. She said Shapiro was seeking access to a $4,000 legal fund that the association currently maintains.

Ward told Shapiro that Gonen’s settlement should be made public because the size of the Fairway Building has become a public issue. She said the builder’s lawyers told her the settlement was sealed at Shapiro’s request.

Clients’ Representative

Shapiro denied that. He said that he is prepared to publicly reveal the terms of the agreement if Gonen authorizes it.

“My responsibility is to my clients. If the client was the Residents Assn., it would have become a public issue,” Shapiro said. “Those who chose not to act lost their vote. I’m representing my clients, not the SCRA.”

Residents attending Tuesday night’s meeting were divided over whether it is important for them to know how much Gonen paid Bernuth, Minkow and Shapiro to drop their protests.

But there were grumbles from the audience over what several suggested were ego clashes between Shapiro, who headed the association from 1981 to 1986, and Ward, who has been president since 1987.

‘Community Issue’

“I don’t think we carried it far enough,” said homeowner Farrell Bennett. “The builder was on the ropes on this. We should have kicked him around a little bit. This is a community issue--the issue is what the city and the developer are doing to this community.”

Ward said the association will turn its attention toward traffic problems that will be generated by an unusually shaped intersection in front of the Fairway Building. Gonen, meantime, reportedly plans to negotiate a private settlement with a third homeowner whose view is blocked.

“The only issue remaining is what to do with traffic,” Ward said. “We’re left with cleaning up the mess. We’re left with solving the traffic problem, and we’re left with that building.”