LAT: For two decades, Dee Tuntkavep has enjoyed a view of pine-shrouded Chandler Boulevard from the upstairs reading room of her Sherman Oaks home.
Now all she sees are concrete walls two stories high — the still-in-progress expansion of an Orthodox Jewish house of worship. In fact, plans for the upgraded Chabad of North Hollywood are for a structure nearly nine times the size of the prayer house it replaces.
On its website, the Chabad gives thanks: “Divine Providence has finally shined down on this long-awaited project.”
Litigation, however, has brought the project to a virtual halt.
Tuntkavep and dozens of other residents say the new building’s size — 12,000 square feet squeezed onto a 9,568-square-foot parcel zoned for residential — is just too big for the surrounding blocks of single-family homes, some starting at more than $1 million.
“It’s like a mountain,” Tuntkavep said. “How did this happen?”
