Expansion of Westside Pavilion Approved

The Los Angeles Planning Commission has approved a 160,000-square-foot expansion of the Westside Pavilion shopping center after the developer suggested using a portion of the project as office space to reduce anticipated traffic problems.

The proposal now goes to the City Council for final approval. But it would take a vote of 10 of the 15 council members to overrule the Planning Commission.

Commission Chairman Daniel P. Garcia said Westfield Inc.’s decision to commit 30,000 square feet of the new construction to office space would solve the traffic problems predicted by neighborhood groups opposing the project. The homeowners had tried to persuade the commission to limit the expansion to the 105,000 square feet allowed by the area’s current zoning.

Zoning Change Allowed

Instead, the commission Thursday approved a zoning change to allow the full project, which will be across the street from the Westside Pavilion at Pico and Westwood boulevards in West Los Angeles. The project will include a bridge over Westwood Boulevard linking the two projects. The bridge will house retail space as well as a walkway and a ramp for cars.

In another move to diminish traffic problems, the commission required Westfield to post a $500,000 bond to pay for any traffic improvements necessitated by the expansion during its first two years.

However, the project still faces opposition from some neighbors and from City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky. The councilman believes the proposal passed by the commission circumvents density limits passed by voters as Proposition U in 1986, according to Ginny Kruger, his planning deputy.

‘We’re at War’

“When I mentioned it (the commission’s decision) to Zev, he said, ‘That’s it, we’re at war with the pavilion,’ ” she said.

The 3-story addition would create 1,000 new parking spaces. Westfield President Richard Green said the spaces--more than the number required by the city--will compensate for a shortage of 456 parking spaces in the present shopping center, completed in 1985.

Restricting the size of the expansion would have made the new parking spaces financially unfeasible, Green said. “I’m really pleased we’ll have an opportunity to correct some of the problems,” he said.

Chief Hearing Officer Bob Rogers said a study by the city’s Department of Transportation found that traffic around the pavilion would decrease if the new project is built, partly because there would be more parking-- decreasing the number of cars circling the area looking for parking spaces--and because some traffic would use the new bridge rather than Pico or Westwood boulevards. He also noted that the conversion of a portion of the project to office space would result in a “significant reduction” in traffic on weekends--when shopping malls are busiest and offices mostly empty.

The changes did not convince Sandy Brown, a Rancho Park resident who represented three homeowners groups. She said the decision to add office space should require a new environmental impact report. “We believe that this project . . . is not in fact the same project” that residents have been shown at public hearings, she said.

But Chairman Garcia dismissed Brown’s argument. “This (office space) is not to change the nature of the project, but to lessen traffic impacts,” he said.