Council OKs Olympic Project, Ending Weeks of Controversy

The Los Angeles City Council ended weeks of controversy Tuesday by approving a compromise plan for an eight-story, 140,000-square-foot office tower on Olympic Boulevard near Federal Avenue.

Residents had protested that a tall office project would bring additional noise and traffic and create a giant shadow over one of the Westside’s older Japanese neighborhoods.

The compromise, recommended by the city’s three-member planning committee, scaled down original proposals for a 10- or 12-story tower that would have contained 228,000 square feet of office space. Residents had asked that the Tishman West Management Corp., which is building the project, be limited to no more than six stories.

“We feel it’s about the best compromise we could come up with,” Marc McKinney, a spokesman for the 400-member Westside Residents Assn., said after Tuesday’s unanimous council vote. “We (knew) . . . there was going to be something there. This will set the tone for the rest of Olympic Boulevard.”

Residents and city planners have considered the project a benchmark for the size of further office buildings along a 3/4-mile stretch of Olympic Boulevard, where at least three other projects are being planned for construction during the next four years.

Those projects will result in at least 1 million square feet of offices on Olympic between Sepulveda Boulevard and Barrington Avenue, McKinney said.