L.A. Planners Restructure Deal for Pershing Square Hotel-Office Job

City planning officials gingerly asserted their right to regulate major downtown development Thursday, restructuring a $300-million deal involving a proposed hotel-office complex near Pershing Square that has long been the object of controversy.

According to an arrangement recommended by the city Planning Commission in building the 1.2-million-square-foot complex, the developer may double the building size normally allowed downtown in return for an $11.2-million contribution to a variety of public interests.

The benefits are to include the refurbishing of Pershing Square Park, rehabilitation of nearby historic buildings, subsidies for low- and moderate-income housing in the downtown area, subsidies for such neighborhood social services as child care, counseling centers and health centers and assistance for the struggling Los Angeles Theatre Center.

The hotel-office project, known as Pershing Square Centre, has been on the drawing board for nearly a decade and recently has become the focal point of a downtown power struggle pitting city planners and a local preservation group against the Community Redevelopment Agency.

The agency, working with developers, has spurred $5 billion worth of new building downtown, but it has increasingly been criticized for not paying enough attention to planning and design issues.

Criticism of the agency came to a head in a lawsuit filed by the Los Angeles Conservancy, a 2,600-member group that works to save historic buildings. The conservancy challenged the agency’s original deal with Pershing Square Centre, contending that the project would be too big for the neighborhood.

Efforts to settle the suit led to the intervention of the City Planning Commission, whose president, Dan Garcia, has long believed that city planners should play a greater role in overseeing downtown development.

Once they became involved in the dispute, city planning officials took issue with the agency’s deal with Pershing Square Centre, which would have permitted the project in return for the $11.2 million, with the money going into an agency fund to acquire city parkland. City planners argued that, as a matter of policy, such contributions should go toward needed urban improvements in the vicinity of the proposed development.

In amending the agency’s agreement with Pershing Square Centre, the Planning Commission was careful not to dictate how the developer’s money should be spent. Instead, the commission adopted language urging the agency to consider using the $11.2 million to pay for the public benefits listed by the Planning Department.

City Council Decision

The commission is scheduled to take its final action on the matter later in the month. Ultimately, the issue will go before the City Council.

Officials of both the agency and the conservancy said they are pleased with the commission’s action.

Carlyle W. Hall Jr., the lawyer representing the conservancy, said the commission’s action is particularly significant as a precedent for future development decisions in the central business district.

“I see it as a big victory. The main point is that the city is shouldering responsibility for what is built downtown,” Hall said.