West Hollywood

The Pacific Design Center will be allowed to submit plans for an expansion that would more than double its size, under an exemption to the city’s building moratorium approved last week by the City Council. Although the design center is not mentioned by name in the exemption, City Council members said their action was aimed at the distinctive structure.

Design center officials will be allowed to submit plans for a permit so they can speed up planning on an 825,000-square-foot expansion of the center, which houses interior desingers, architects and design wholesalers. Plans submitted under the exemption will not be evaluated by the city until a community plan and zoning ordinance have been approved by the City Council.

Design center officials want to add a red tower and a green tower to the blue glass building that now sits at the corner of San Vicente Boulevard and Melrose Avenue. They had complained that the city’s building moratorium would delay construction and perhaps lead to the flight of designers from West Hollywood, the traditional hub of the industry in the Los Angeles area.