Holds Meetings Instead : Developer of Costly Lots, Homes Shuns Camp-outs

No camp-outs are planned for the building sites and custom homes at Bel Air Crest in the Santa Monica Mountains, but it won’t be for lack of demand, according to Bruce Froehlich.

Such activity wouldn’t be fitting for a development where lots sell from about $550,000 to more than $1 million, he said. Froehlich is director of housing for the Prestige Homes unit of the developer, Goldrich & Kest Industries, Culver City.

The $250-million, 516-acre development south of the Mulholland ridge dividing West Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley will have 147 lots for custom houses and 137 houses built by Prestige Homes, Froehlich said.

The houses--called Canyon Homes--will range in size from 2,367 to 4,336 square feet and will have from three to five bedrooms, he added. They will be priced from nearly $600,000 to almost $1 million.

More than 450 prospective buyers have signed an interest list for the houses and lots, Froehlich said. The lots range in size from 12,000 to 25,000 square feet and will accommodate houses ranging in size from 5,000 to 7,500 square feet, priced from $1.25 million to $2.5 million.

McLarand Vasquez & Partners designed the 137 canyon homes, along with four custom houses, Froehlich said. Firestone Design will design two custom houses, and the Peridian Group is responsible for the development’s landscape design and planning.

Even though they dedicated more than 400 acres of the site for use as open space, the developers incurred the wrath of members of a neighboring homeowners association--the Roscomare Valley Assn.--by grading too much of a ridge in Bel Air Crest.

The ridge at the top of Hoag Canyon was shaved down by about 200 feet last year, despite an agreement between Goldrich & Kest Industries and the association to ensure that most of the ridge would remain intact.

Under an agreement approved May 11 by the Los Angeles Planning Department’s advisory agency, Goldrich & Kest agreed to rebuild the ridge by an average of 20 feet in height and to provide extensive landscaping to reduce the visibility of the project for hillside homeowners.

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