Battle Over Congestion in Sherman Oaks : Neighbors, Private School Call Truce

Following heated negotiations, residents of an affluent section of Sherman Oaks struck an apparent truce Thursday in a longstanding battle with the private school that they said had turned their dream neighborhood into “a parking lot.”

But officials at Buckley School said a nine-point plan approved by the Los Angeles City Planning Commission will cost the school up to $75,000 annually in revenues and may eventually cause it to seek city permission to increase enrollment.

Residents had objected to the school’s practice of regularly renting or lending their facilities to other schools and organizations; the campus occasionally also had been used in the filming of movies and television shows.

Besides prohibiting the loan or rental of school facilities during off hours, the plan limits extracurricular events that may attract more than 30 participants to six times a month and establishes strict hours of operation.

Hours Limited

The school, which now has no set closing time, will have to close by 6 p.m., with a two-hour extension for volleyball and basketball practice. It will be allowed to stay open until 11 p.m. for two drama productions a year.

“We’re pleased with it,” said Shirley Hart, a spokeswoman for homeowners on nearby Stansbury Avenue and Valley Vista Boulevard. “We feel we’ve been heard.”

Last year, another resident, Hudson Hickman, had summed up neighbors’ feelings about the school activities by telling the planning commission that the street was being used “as a parking lot, meeting place and drag strip.”

Residents had sought a revocation of the 1965 conditional-use permit under which construction of the school was allowed, with enrollment fixed at 750 students. If the revocation had been approved, it would have led either to the school’s relocation or its closing, said commission president Daniel Garcia.

The planning commission staff had recommended that the commission issue a “first warning,” the initial step in the process, and determine the school to be “a public nuisance”

Gave Residents Leverage

But Garcia said the conditions hammered out by a deputy of Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, who represents the area, gave residents the same leverage as the warning and that the nuisance determination would only “add more bitterness to the debate and detract from the sense of cooperation I see now.”

Yaroslavsky deputy Penelope Simison said negotiations on the problem that residents said has been festering for five years began six months ago and continued until the commissioners returned from their lunch break Thursday to consider the matter.

In emotional testimony before the commission, Buckley officials, students and parents defended the school, saying it had already taken steps to alleviate the problem with a new parking lot, parking permits for students, car-pooling incentives and “satellite” parking located at a distance from the school and residential property.

Closure Wasn’t the Aim

Residents said they had not meant to close the school but rather had sought a resolution to school-related traffic and parking problems that clog the cul-de-sac on which the school is situated.

Morton D. Schwartz, a civil engineer retained by the school, said the conditions would lead to “a severe loss of income” for the school, and that it might have to consider bolstering enrollment to make up the difference.

Buckley’s headmaster, Walter H. Baumhoff, said the school has rented its facilities to two schools and served as the setting for “three or four” television and movie projects. In addition, he said it routinely lends the facilities to nonprofit organizations for meetings.

“We look forward to developing a more harmonious relationship with our immediate homeowners,” he said.