Planners Seek Building Limits in Metro Rail Corridor

Los Angeles city planners, bracing for worsening traffic along the proposed Metro Rail route, are seeking to tighten limits on development there--whether or not the subway is ever built.

In the San Fernando Valley, major thoroughfares in the Studio City-Universal City area would be affected.

The proposal, which needs City Council approval, would require developers to provide transportation improvements such as street widening before they proceeding with major projects along much of the 18.6-mile downtown Los Angeles-to-San Fernando Valley corridor.

Corporate tenants along the route would be required to institute car pools and staggered work hours to relieve traffic.

Ed Johnson, a city planner who helped prepare the revised zoning proposal, said that, even if the $3.3-billion Metro Rail system is built--and that is far from sure because of opposition from President Reagan and others in Washington--traffic is going to get worse along the subway corridor.

‘A Little Less Worse’

“It would be a little less worse with this plan,” Johnson said.

In the Valley, the plan would regulate development along the stretch of Metro Rail that would go through Universal City. The area around a proposed subway stop at Chandler and Lankershim boulevards in North Hollywood, which is already regulated by a redevelopment plan for the area, would not be affected.

The plan would allow the most intense development--possibly a skyscraper--atop the proposed site of the Metro Rail station on Lankershim, across from the entrance to Universal Studios. The site, which now includes apartment buildings, would be rezoned for commercial use.

But development along the rest of Lankershim between Ventura Boulevard and the Ventura Freeway would be restricted to three-story commercial buildings. High-rise development is now allowed.

Johnson said the plan would allow developers to go ahead with smaller projects without returning to the city for zoning approval. But, he said, if developers wanted to build larger projects, they would have to obtain the approval of the Planning Commission or, on appeal, the City Council. Approval would be contingent on developers’ plans to alleviate traffic problems in the area.

An informational meeting on the plan is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at the North Hollywood Recreation Center, 5301 Tujunga Ave. A public hearing will be held Aug. 1 before the Planning Commission, which will make a recommendation to the council. The hearing will be at 1:30 p.m. at the Parker Center, 150 N. Los Angeles St., in downtown Los Angeles.

The Studio City Residents Assn., which oversees development in the area, has yet to take a position on the revised zoning plan. But a spokesman for MCA, the parent corporation of Universal Studios and a major landowner in Universal City, said the proposal would unfairly restrict development of its property. He said that MCA already is addressing traffic problems.

“Regardless of how much land we may have for development, if traffic is so bad in this area that it’s inconvenient for people to get in and out of buildings, no one is going to lease space from us,” said Lawrence D. Spungin, vice president of MCA Development Co., a division of MCA. “It’s incumbent on us to solve the traffic problem.”

New Freeway Ramps Planned

He said that MCA, without any prodding from the city, is working with the California Department of Transportation to build new ramps to the Hollywood Freeway to provide additional access to Universal Studios. He said the ramps also would relieve traffic on Lankershim.

In the Universal City area, two intersections--the northbound Hollywood Freeway off-ramp at Lankershim Boulevard and the intersection of Ventura Boulevard and Vineland Avenue--are now at capacity during the evening rush hour, according to a city study. Congestion is worse at the nearby intersection of Barham and Cahuenga boulevards, where traffic is so congested during peak hours that it causes long stoppages and lines of vehicles backed up for blocks.

Several projects under way in the area are expected to generate even more traffic.

The city planners’ proposal would affect only that part of Universal City in the City of Los Angeles, including the hilly area alongside the Hollywood Freeway owned by MCA. About 300 acres owned by MCA, including the studios’ back lot, are in an unincorporated area under zoning control of the county Board of Supervisors.

Current city zoning in Universal City allows commercial development of up to 9.1 million square feet, far in excess of the existing development of 1.1 million square feet. By contrast, the whole of Century City has 6.5 million square feet.

The limits suggested by the planners would allow for 3.9 million square feet of development without city zoning approval. That maximum could increase to 12.8 million square feet if developers could demonstrate that they can mitigate the effect of their projects on traffic.

Proposal Would Raise Limit

If Metro Rail is built, the proposal would raise the limit to 13.8 million square feet. This still would be less, however, than the 19.8 million square feet provided for in a land-use plan for the area that has been approved by the City Council but not yet implemented.

Spungin said the plan would require MCA to secure approval from the planning commission for development of all but 100,000 square feet--tantamount to only one five-story building--on its remaining 70 acres of vacant land. Under current zoning, MCA can develop nearly 1.7 million square feet without subjecting itself to public criticism at planning commission hearings.

“It’s made to appear that there’s a lot of development opportunity for MCA,” Spungin said of the proposal. “But, in fact, that isn’t true.”