It's war on Mulholland

The two halves of Beverly Park, the exclusive gated community tucked between Beverly Hills and Mulholland Drive, have gone to court against each other over blocked access and unpaid fees. The tensions escalated last year when residents of North Beverly Park — the part that includes Sumner Redstone and Haim Saban — stopped allowing the nannies, gardeners and other visitors to South BP — the side where Magic Johnson and Richard Zanuck live — from entering off Mulholland. Alexa Hyland at the L.A. Business Journal picks up the story:

The visitors and workers are forced to go east to Coldwater Canyon Drive or west to Benedict Canyon Drive – a detour of seven miles along narrow and often crowded streets. And so the southerners have responded with a lawsuit....

Residents in the north say the restrictive policy is necessary because the southerners have refused to pay for upkeep of the private street, even though they use the street regularly. They claim the service staff and guests of southern residents often drove too fast and got access to the private street when they had no intention of stopping at any homes in the south, using it as a shortcut for commuting.

“Their gardeners were coming through on off days,” said Michael Scott, a retired real estate investor who has lived in North Beverly for six years. “At what point does it become abusive?”

Southerners would not comment, but in court papers they claimed there is no basis for them to pay for upkeep of the north’s streets.

Looks like a jury trial is on tap. Rest is free at the LABJ site.