Bradley Forms Panel to Guide Urban Growth : Development: Architects group will try to coordinate numerous projects in Beverly-Fairfax-Miracle Mile areas.

Mayor Tom Bradley announced Wednesday that an urban design workshop using volunteer architects will be held in April to plan for massive development expected around the Farmers Market and nearby Westside areas in the coming years.

The workshop will be run by the American Institute of Architects and is an attempt to coordinate dozens of proposed development projects that span two City Council districts in the Beverly-Fairfax-Miracle Mile area.

At present, developers are proceeding with their plans “without any regard for what the other is going to do,” Bradley said at a press conference. The workshop will produce guidelines that will “give us an idea how best to relate major developments that are adjacent,” he said.

The architects and appointed area residents are expected to focus on two large projects--a Farmers Market Mall next to the existing Farmers Market at 3rd Street and Fairfax Avenue, and expansion of the nearby Park Labrea complex that is to include 2,200 new rental units as well as an office building and hotel.

“The Farmers Market and Park Labrea projects are a stone’s throw apart, and yet each development is proceeding as if each is on opposite ends of the city,” Bradley said. “Individual projects cannot be looked at as if they exist in a vacuum.”

Bradley’s intervention at such an early stage in the development process is unusual and has caused some resentment from the council members who represent the area--John Ferraro and Zev Yaroslavsky.

Traditionally, development projects are the sole domain of the council member whose district is affected, but Bradley’s staff wants to begin taking a broader view.

“What we’re trying to do is be involved earlier in the process . . . in a constructive way,” said Jane Blumenfeld, Bradley’s chief planning aide. Otherwise, she said, the mayor’s only option is to veto a project when it is well along.

Neither Yaroslavsky nor Ferraro attended the press conference Wednesday, although both were invited, according to the mayor’s office.

Ferraro issued a statement saying that he would not participate in the workshop, but has been working with the community to plan the projects for years.

Yaroslavsky said in a statement that he opposes the developments because the area is already too congested.

Bradley has taken no position on whether the development plans should be scaled back. “It would be a mistake to preempt the group we’re just appointing,” he said.

Ray Gaio, president of the AIA, said the group has a firm commitment to assist Los Angeles “as it becomes a prototypical 20th Century first-class city.”

The workshop will do its job, Gaio said, “without a vested interest and with an obligation to no special interest group.”

In addition to the Farmers Market and Park Labrea, more than 30 projects are in the works within a 1 1/2-mile radius.

The largest is the Farmers Market, with nearly a million square feet of retail and 222,000 square feet of office space proposed. Others include an office and hotel complex at 5600 Wilshire, with almost 321,000 square feet of office space and 354 hotel rooms; a 396-room hotel at 100 N. La Cienega Blvd.; and seven smaller projects in Beverly Hills.

Participants in the workshop will be selected by the mayor’s office and the AIA. They will interview a committee of community residents selected by the offices of the mayor, Yaroslavsky and Ferraro.

Ronnie Gootkin, president of the Rancho La Brea Neighborhood Assn., which represents homeowners and renters in the area just east of the Farmers Market, said Wednesday he hoped the committee would include neighborhood representatives.

“It could be a very positive thing,” he said. “One of our biggest fears was having each project decided on its own merits, rather than looking at the entire neighborhood.”

Gootkin said he would welcome the mayor’s input, “to try to bring a little bit of sanity to all of this uncontrolled development.”

Stanley Treitel, executive director of Vitalize Fairfax, a group of representatives of local businesses, elected officials and service agencies, said he has doubts about the clout of the mayor’s proposed new panel.

“I’ll be glad to work with them, but I don’t see this having an earth-shattering effect on development right now.”