Bernson to Fight Courthouse Site in Chatsworth : Neighborhoods: Residents oppose construction of the building at Winnetka Avenue and Plummer Street, the councilman says.

Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson said Tuesday he opposes the construction of a courthouse on a Chatsworth industrial park site being considered by Los Angeles County.

Bernson, through a spokeswoman, said the residents who live just north of the site don’t want a courthouse at the southeast corner of Winnetka Avenue and Plummer Street. Bernson represents the area.

During a meeting with Los Angeles Municipal Court officials on Monday, Bernson “voiced his opposition to that site, and he told the representatives that he will work with them on an alternate suitable site,” a Bernson spokeswoman said.

The county wants to build a municipal courthouse of eight to 18 courtrooms in the West San Fernando Valley to serve the growing population there, court officials have said.

Robert J. Quist, the court’s deputy administrator, said Tuesday he plans to meet with residents of the neighborhood in question.

“I don’t think we’d have opposition from the councilman if we were able to come to an agreement with the citizens,” Quist said.

The 9.3-acre site, located in Chatsworth’s industrial area, is owned by developer Alexander Haagen. Haagen has proposed building a courthouse there or at the northeast corner of Topanga Canyon Boulevard and Marilla Street in Chatsworth, according to documents from the county Internal Services Department.

Court officials have not favored the Marilla Street site because “we really felt that it was a little far west and congestion down there traffic-wise was greater,” Quist said. The 8.4-acre parcel is occupied by a lumber yard.

The county received 18 proposals, county Internal Services records show. For a variety of reasons, such as higher cost of land, locations outside the West Valley or developers’ decisions to drop out, the other 16 sites are no longer under consideration, according to the records.

Resident Harry Godley, who has helped organize opposition in the neighborhood, said he is willing to meet with Quist.

“It’s just not buffered from the residential area,” Godley said of the Winnetka Avenue site. “We are not objecting to a courthouse per se. We are objecting to a courthouse adjacent to a residential area where it would have a tremendous impact on the quality of life in that community.”

Quist said he hopes to explain to residents that most users of a courthouse are “just normal people. The ratio of criminal defendants coming into a courthouse compared to everyone else that goes in . . . is infinitesimal.”

If the county, Bernson and the neighborhood do agree on the Winnetka Avenue site, it is not clear what, if anything, Bernson could do to stop the county from building there. The county is not bound by city of Los Angeles land-use regulations, said Charles J. Moore, a principal deputy county counsel.