ENCINO : Panel to Consider College Compromise

A tentative deal under which a vocational school would avoid what was expected to be a bitter fight over its bid to continue doing business in Encino is expected to be considered Tuesday by a panel of the Los Angeles City Council.

Under the compromise, an Encino homeowner group has agreed to drop its opposition to Pacific Coast College’s planned request for an exception to the Ventura Boulevard Specific Plan. The deal is expected to be unveiled before the planning and land-use committee of the City Council, said Gerald A. Silver, president of the Homeowners of Encino.

In exchange for homeowners agreeing not to fight the college’s request for an exception to the Ventura Boulevard Specific Plan, the college has proposed phasing out the school’s 400 students by August, 1994, and discontinuing educational activity at the facility at Ventura Boulevard and Gaviota Avenue. The school would still have administrative offices at the site. Its parent company operates another school, in Orange County.

College officials were not available for comment Friday.

The college, which opened in 1992, requires an exception to the Specific Plan because it is operating in an area reserved for retail and pedestrian-oriented uses.

Nearby homeowners had complained that the college’s 400 students create excessive noise and traffic and add to parking problems. If the committee does approve the deal, it would still require a vote of the full council to make it final, Silver said.