- Ruling Upholds Trial Court Decision Supporting City Planning Director's Requirement for Environmental Review of Planned Mega Compound
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 17, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --The California Court of Appeal has dealt a severe blow to Saudi Prince Abdulaziz ibn Abdullah ibn Abdulaziz al Saud's quest to build a mega compound in Benedict Canyon with no environmental review and no public input. Last week, the Court rejected the Prince's demand that the City allow construction to begin despite his project's failure to comply with the City's fire-safety requirement for secondary vehicular access.
The Court of Appeal, in an unequivocal and detailed 26-page opinion, rejected a series of arguments by the Prince's attorneys and upheld a trial court ruling from September 2013 supporting Los Angeles Planning Director Michael LoGrande's 2012 confirmation that the steeply sloping Benedict Canyon property - located at the end of a narrow, dead-end street in a "very high fire hazard severity zone" - must have secondary vehicular access or apply for a waiver and carry out environmental review.
A copy of the ruling is available at SaveBenedictCanyon.com.
Directly addressing longstanding arguments made by the Prince's company, Tower Lane Properties, the Court of Appeal wrote: "Tower argues the City has a ministerial duty to issue the permits it seeks because its project conforms with all applicable codes and ordinances. We disagree." The Court added: "In short, no building permit may issue for construction on a private street absent satisfaction of conditions of the street's approval or waiver thereof. (LAMC, 18.10.) A secondary access road was a condition of Tower Lane's approval."
Yet no secondary access road exists in the Prince's elaborate plans for the property, detailed by the Court as: "...six retaining walls, four houses, three water features, two above ground garages, and two auxiliary buildings, and [removal of] almost 1,000 cubic yards of earth."
In November 2012, Planning Director LoGrande confirmed that building permits could not be issued for the mega compound because there was no secondary vehicular access. LoGrande also made clear that if the Prince seeks a waiver or modification of the secondary vehicular access requirement, it "will require environmental review."
The Court recognized the Benedict Canyon residents' interests in "rapid fire response," acknowledged that the secondary access requirement "protects a vital and pressing public interest," and concluded that "a crucial safety condition has not been met." The Court cited the municipal code which spells out the process by which a condition could be modified, and stated that it would not "enable a property owner to spurn an available public remedy and thereby circumvent a vital public safety requirement."
In its ruling, the Court said: "The Los Angeles Municipal Code provides that waiver or modification of a street approval condition, which is itself a precondition to issuance of a building permit, must be obtained from the Planning Department. Tower admits it refuses to seek a waiver or modification from that department."
The Tower Lane team has persistently refused to participate in a public environmental review of this massive project-its attorney claiming "public input is irrelevant." Instead, the Prince's team has continually tried to use litigation to evade the requisite public process.
"The Court of Appeal ruling is a huge relief to the residents of Benedict Canyon," said Michael Eisenberg, a neighbor living near the Tower Lane property. "The Court has now made it clear the Prince can no longer avoid critically important fire safety measures, including secondary vehicular access, without following the proper public process and doing environmental review. The City has painstakingly developed these measures to ensure all of our well-being."
For years, City Councilman Paul Koretz, the Bel-Air Beverly Crest Neighborhood Council, the Benedict Canyon Association, the Hillside Federation and more than 1,000 local residents have joined the City in the call for environmental review of the Prince's proposed mega compound.
"We are so appreciative of Councilman Koretz's efforts on our behalf," said longtime Benedict Canyon resident and community leader Nickie Miner. "If the Prince wants to proceed any further, he needs to comply with the same environmental laws, fire and safety codes and other building requirements that we all have to follow. With the clear ruling from the Appellate Court, it's time for the Prince to participate in a public review process with the community and provide secondary access for vehicles or shelve this mega hillside compound."
