Anonymous Flyers Stoke Battle over High-Rise

Controversy over who is at fault for the height of a disputed Studio City high-rise was growing faster than the building itself Monday.

Unsigned flyers that pointed fingers of blame at both the developer and a former president of the Studio City Residents Assn. were being circulated to homeowners living near the 95-foot-tall office building under construction at Fairway Avenue and Ventura Boulevard.

Neighbors, meanwhile, were preparing their own protest against the $4.3-million structure at a Building and Safety Commission hearing at 2:30 p.m. today at Los Angeles City Hall.

One of the flyers blamed city officials for allowing “this illegal development” that “violates building codes.” That outraged builder Eitan Gonen, whose lawyers said they asked for a court order to block further distribution of the one-page sheet.

The other flyer was labeled the “Studio City Town Enquirer.” It blamed the “high-rise scandal” on lawyer and homeowner activist Daniel Max Shapiro.

Shapiro, former president of the Studio City Residents Assn., negotiated a settlement to an earlier lawsuit involving a building proposed at the construction site and is suing to block completion of the current building.

Ellwood Lui, attorney for Gonen, suggested that Shapiro was the author of the “illegal development” flyer and was “being named in a lawsuit to enjoin this conduct.” According to Lui, it was Shapiro who in 1980 “bargained for the height we have now. If the homeowners want to get at anybody, they should go back to Shapiro,” Lui said.

Lui said the 1980 agreement allowed the building to be stepped in height up a steep hill south of the Fairway-Ventura intersection. The building is divided into three parts, which allowed it to be classified as a three-story structure, Lui said, even though the three structures taken together appear to be about seven stories high.

Shapiro rejected that interpretation of the agreement he made, saying that he has proof the building is illegal and that Los Angeles city officials erred in allowing construction to proceed.

He also denied producing the anti-high-rise poster. “If he wants to sue me, let him,” he said.

He rejected charges in the “Enquirer” flyer that he used his position as Studio City homeowners president to “hire himself as attorney and then authorize huge payments to himself.” Shapiro said he was not president of the group at the time he represented it in court.

The two flyers stirred widespread comment Monday in Studio City.

“There’s been all sorts of speculation where they’ve come from,” said Polly Ward, current residents association president. “They didn’t come from me or my board.”