Plans for Spa Stressing Out Neighbors of Wooded Valley

A proposed luxury spa specializing in stress-management for affluent executives is aggravating a group of Westlake Village homeowners who say the facility would spoil a picturesque, wooded valley near their homes.

Westlake Village interior designer Jean Curtis and her husband Doug, a film producer, are seeking permission to build a $20-million spa complex on 48 acres in Triunfo Canyon, east of the Westlake Village city limit.

Dotted with graceful oak, sycamore and eucalyptus trees, and crossed by Triunfo Creek, the site is home to such creatures as mule deer, gray foxes, newts, the silvery legless lizard and the western patch-nosed snake.

Jean Curtis thinks the setting would be the perfect backdrop for a facility catering to stressed-out executives, Hollywood stars and others able to spend $2,500 a week in quest of soothed nerves.

But nearby residents fear the development would mar the valley’s beauty, chase away wildlife and increase noise, traffic and fire danger. They want to see the land maintained as a public preserve, said Dr. Albert R. Greenfeld, spokesman for the Coalition of Concerned Citizens, a group of several hundred homeowners formed to fight the project.

Curtis has an option to buy the land from developer John Byrd of Thousand Oaks, who has secured tentative approval to build 70 homes in the valley. The spa would be built on land Byrd had planned using for 20 for the homes.

Conditional-Use Permit Needed

The Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission today is scheduled to take up Curtis’ request for conditional-use and oak-tree permits necessary to build the spa and remove up to 67 oak trees. The land is zoned for resort and recreational uses, but officials said a conditional-use permit is still needed for a spa.

A national corporation--which Curtis refused to name--has agreed to fund the project if the permit is approved, Curtis said.

About 500 residents living near the site have signed petitions opposing the development, and many plan to show up at the commission meeting, Greenfeld said.

“What she’s doing is so out of keeping with the zoning, the terrain and respect for the environment that it’s almost a mockery,” said Greenfeld, a surgeon whose cliff-top home overlooks the site. “It violates all the reasonable concepts of the use of this land. It should be preserved for our children and the children of other generations.”

“Putting a spa in is a real travesty,” said Greenfeld’s neighbor, Anita Goldman. “I’m not against her spa but her facility should be put somewhere where it doesn’t disrupt so many homes and lives.”

Seeks to Retain Rustic Quality

But Curtis said the 95,898-square-foot development has been designed to retain as much of the beauty of the site as possible. “People will come here for self-renewal so I want to preserve the rustic nature of the site,” she said.

Her plan calls for a two-story, 33,000-square-foot Italian Mediterranean-style main building and nine smaller buildings, each with 10 guest rooms. The development would also feature nine parking lots with space for 173 cars, a large swimming pool, and a house for Curtis, who would serve as on-site director. The spa would have 110 employees and 126 guests at full capacity, Curtis said.

The development would nestle in the cliff side and along the creek, covering 15 acres, leaving 32 acres of open land, she said.

The existing tentative tract plan for the land is far more obtrusive, Curtis said. Byrd has received tentative approval to build 20 homes spread over 23 acres, a project that would destroy more trees and require more grading, Curtis said. Byrd also is planning to build 50 homes adjacent to the proposed spa complex site.

Land Is ‘Going to be Developed’

“This land is owned,” Curtis said. “It’s going to be developed. It’s a matter of whether they’re going to be looking at 20 homes or a first-class spa.”

Goldman said residents would rather have homes on the site.

“I’m not thrilled about that but this canyon every few years gets hit by fire,” she said. “Someone that’s living down there in their own home is going to be more respectful of the area than people here for a three-day visit.”

Curtis, 42, the mother of two, said she has no previous experience as a developer. She became interested in stress-management after breaking her neck five years ago when she was thrown from a horse. Two years ago, she began taking courses in hotel and restaurant mangement and researching spa complexes, she said.

It was only four months ago that she recruited a corporate backer, she said.

Curtis said the spa would be similar to the Golden Door in Escondido or the Canyon Ranch in Tucson and she envisions it as a “gift for humankind,” although she acknowledges that much of humankind would be unable to afford the spa’s prices. But she said that bringing relaxation to executives would benefit employees as well.

“If you start at the top, there’s a very advantageous rippling effect that trickles down all the way through middle management, all the way to the uncle in Oshkosh,” Curtis said.

A spa guest’s day would begin at 7 a.m. with a nature walk, and include yoga, “detoxifying meals,” and seminars in “life-style reprogramming” and combatting addictions. Guests might curl up in “cocoon-type” chairs with built-in sound systems, through which relaxing music would be played as they view videotapes of tranquil scenes, Curtis said.

An environmental impact report commissioned by Curtis found no rare or endangered plants or wildlife in the area, but a study commissioned by homeowners concluded that there would be damage to four species of plants deemed sensitive by the California Department of Fish and Game.

The residents group would like to see the land purchased by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy. Joseph T. Edmiston, executive director of the conservancy, said that it although it is interested in such parcels, the conservancy would not have the funds to buy it until 1988, when it hopes to put a bond issue before voters.