Spielberg Scales Equestrian Plan

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Steven Spielberg and his wife, actress Kate Capshaw, have drastically scaled back plans to build an Equestrian Center in an upscale neighborhood after neighbors said neigh.
The project had included a five-story, 27,000-square-foot domed horse facility with a retractable roof, a three-story guardhouse and a 2,400-square-foot main residence. The $7 million project on 2.8 acres in the city's Brentwood section would have required builders to apply for six zoning variances.

"This time around, they've substantially scaled down the project and notified the property owners as to what they are doing and are being reasonably cooperative in the process,'' said Henry Gradstein, a lawyer whose property overlooks the Spielbergs'.
The neighbors' main objection to the original plans was that the domed horse center would look out of place among the rustic, single-story, ranch-style homes in the area known as Sullivan Canyon.
"We tried as much as possible to deal with their concerns, and retool or eliminate whatever aspects of the project were cause for concern,'' said Andy Spahn, a senior executive with DreamWorks SKG, the studio Spielberg co-owns with former Disney Studios head Jeffrey Katzenberg and music mogul David Geffen.

The new blueprints still include a large riding ring - 24,000 square feet - but it will be outdoors with fewer stables than in the first plan. The guard house and main residence have been eliminated and an 8-foot-high gate was reduced to 6 feet.
Spielberg hopes to break ground in September and have the project completed 18 months later.