City to Take Eagle Rock From Owner : Landmarks: The L.A. council votes to acquire land on which the famed boulder sits. The investor is crying foul.

Some say it is a huge rock with an indentation that makes it look like an eagle. Others say it does not resemble an eagle at all. But when the sun shines just right, a shadow appears at the top of the rock that looks like an eagle.

Whatever it is, businessman Fred Heim bought it and now he is caught between Eagle Rock and a hard place.

The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to start eminent domain proceedings that will force Heim to sell the 2 1/2 acres that hold Eagle Rock, the 50-foot tall boulder that gave the community its name.

When Heim bought the parcel above the Ventura Freeway near Figueroa Street for $150,000 in 1978, it looked to him like a piece of land with a big rock on it. The property owner says it was years later that he was informed the rock was actually a cultural landmark beloved by the conservative and tightly knit northeast Los Angeles town that bears its name.

“I would have my head examined before I bought a piece of property that has a cultural monument on it,” Heim said. “I should have stayed in the electronics business.”

Four years ago, when Heim tried to sell the land to a developer who wanted to build apartments on it, the community rose up in protest, saying that such structures would block the view of their rock. The City Council killed the deal.

Then, Councilman Richard Alatorre, who represents the area, decided that the land should be purchased by the city so that it and the rock can be protected from developers.

For about 18 months, the city and Heim have been trying to strike a deal. The city offered Heim $230,000 in cash and a selection of other city property for a total value of $500,000. Heim--who says the only other real estate he has ever bought was his house in Encino--contends that the rock and land are worth more than that.

How much more?

“Who knows?” Heim said, adding that the city has ruined the value of the land by refusing to let anybody build near the rock.

“If it weren’t for this Eagle Rock business, you could put upwards of eight to 10 (single-family home) lots there,” Heim said. “The city has already taken, for years, a negative attitude about the land. It puts a guy like me in a difficult position.”

The city says that Heim is dreaming if he thinks the parcel is worth more than $500,000, the amount arrived at by an independent appraiser. To prove that they are serious, city officials are preparing to exercise the rarely used power of eminent domain--the government’s right to seize private property in exchange for “just compensation.”

“The Eagle Rock is part of the city of Eagle Rock and they hold it dear,” said Jeanmarie Hance, Alatorre’s planning deputy. “Our ultimate goal is to make this land public property and retain it as it is. We don’t want to do anything with it. We don’t want to make it a park. We just want it left alone.”

The council’s action orders the city engineer to start legal proceedings against Heim and instructs the Department of Recreation and Parks to find the $500,000 to buy him out.

“I am sure it would be very prestigious to build at the base of this rock, but we aren’t going to let that happen,” Hance said.

As for Heim, he said that he has nothing against the rock, even if it does not look anything like an eagle to him.

“I would be delighted if they make it a park. I climbed on top of the rock once. You get a nice view,” Heim said. “I don’t know which part is the eagle. Is it that thing on the side? I guess the eagle is in the eye of the beholder.”