Curiosity Changes the System : Apartment Project Redesigned After Visit by Disabled Man

A paralyzed man’s curiosity over whether he could steer his wheelchair into new apartments being built in Woodland Hills has prompted a partial redesign of the 1,279-unit project and a revamping of Los Angeles procedures for apartment construction.

Representatives of CoastFed Properties agreed Monday to enlarge the bathrooms and redesign the kitchens in 40 of the units at the Warner Center Apartments project.

Officials of the city’s Building and Safety Department said the modifications will bring the development into compliance with a little-known state law that requires apartment builders to spend $600 per unit to make projects accessible to handicapped tenants.

They said their investigation of a complaint about the project from Richard Smith of Encino, who uses a wheelchair, will provide the city with its first concrete guidelines for enforcing the 3-year-old state law.

Financed by City Bonds

The half-built Woodland Hills project is being financed with $144 million in city revenue bonds. It is part of a municipal housing program that reserves rental units for moderate- and low-income families. About 150 of the units have been rented so far.

According to Smith, he inspected model apartments at the project to check their accessibility after learning that the Canoga Avenue development was the city’s largest bond project for rental housing.

Smith found that there was not enough room to maneuver a wheelchair in bathrooms, and that kitchen counters were out of useful reach of a person in a wheelchair.

Smith, 42, a former high school football star, was paralyzed from the chest down 15 years ago when a wave pushed his head into the sand as he floated at Venice Beach. Before the accident, he worked as a financial analyst; he is now a volunteer member of Mayor Tom Bradley’s advisory council on disability.

“I’m thrilled that the city had the courage to do this for handicapped individuals that don’t have adequate housing,” Smith said after being told of Monday’s agreement.

“I felt I had to complain because of the enormity of this particular development.”

Most Accessible Development

Michael Wood, a building and safety investigator, said the 40 special units will turn the Woodland Hills project into the state’s most accessible apartment development.

He said many builders meet the accessibility requirement of $600 per unit by putting in such things as non-skid sidewalks and ramps that result in not one rental unit’s being fully accessible to those in wheelchairs.

“It’s been a learning process for all of us,” Wood said. “The developer learned that it’s easier to get compliance in the beginning than to go back and retrofit units. We learned to take a much closer look at these units in the future.”

Wood said city investigators spent a week studying blueprints for the Warner Center Apartments to determine whether CoastFed had actually spent the total of $767,400 for access by the handicapped that the state required.

He said the city decided to count only a portion of the cost of such things as the concrete-walkway sealer that the developer claimed was a non-skid surface.

Building and Safety officials said their investigation was complicated by the fact that CoastFed labeled the project a condominium when it took out city building permits. Condominiums are exempt from the state’s apartment-accessibility law.

Called Apartments

But the city concluded the project was legally an apartment development because the municipal-bond financing specified that the units would be rented and not sold, said Assistant City Atty. Claudia McGee Henry.

Building and Safety Department Manager Frank V. Kroeger said his agency was able to act because the Woodland Hills apartments are being built in phases and most of them still have not received occupancy permits.

Henry C. Casden, a lawyer for CoastFed Properties and a brother of project developer Alan Casden of Beverly Hills, said the firm had previously planned $1.1-million worth of facilities for the handicapped at the project.

He said the firm will not know the cost of the additional work until blueprints for the special units are drawn up.

“I think the city and the handicapped community will be very pleased. I think handicapped people will be very comfortable there,” Casden said.

“When we started, the city didn’t know what it wanted. There’s nothing in the law that says precisely what you have to do in terms of accessibility. Nobody knew until the man complained to the city.”