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Supersize this: Hollywood Hills homeowner plans massive expansion

A filing would see the home go from 1.5K sf to 11K sf, continuing a trend among some homeowners in LA

Matthew Lichtenberg and the Hollywood Hills property (Credit: Google Maps)
Matthew Lichtenberg and the Hollywood Hills property (Credit: Google Maps)

The owner of a 1,500-square-foot Hollywood Hills home wants to supersize it with an assemblage of three properties.

Plans for the addition calls for a home that would be 11,000 square feet, more than seven times the size of the current one, according to a filing with the Department of City Planning. The home is located at Lulu Glen Drive and Woodstock Road.

It would dwarf the neighboring Wohlstetter House, a historic 75-year-old home designed by architect Josef Van der Kar, as well as many others in the neighborhood.

The applicant is talent agent Matthew Lichtenberg, the owner of Brentwood-based Level Four Business Management. It is unclear whether he is acting on behalf of a client or owns the property himself. Lichtenberg did not immediately provide a comment on the filing.

The increasing number of homeowners are looking to greatly expand their existing homes throughout L.A.’s tony hillside neighborhoods, prompting pushback from neighbors and elected officials.

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In 2017, the city passed an ordinance to limit the size of mansions in Bel Air, but other areas continue to see steadily increasing development.

Lichtenberg is a trustee of the Julfest Trust, which owns the three properties. Two of them have single-family homes. The third is an acre-large parcel that appears to have a garden and yard. That parcel also borders Laurel Canyon Boulevard.

Most of Lichtenberg’s clients are celebrity comedians, including Larry David, Will Ferrell, and Lewis Black, according to Variety.

Property records show that Lichtenberg purchased the home to be expanded on behalf of the trust in 2017, paying $1.4 million to a trust associated with actress Anne Yarborough Graves, who died six months earlier.

Litchenberg and Graves signed a purchase option agreement in 2013 that allowed Litchenberg to purchase the property from the trust after her death. Lichtenberg and the Julfest Trust has owned a neighboring home at 2825 Woodstock Road since at least 2006, when it took out a mortgage on the property.

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