Additions to Music Center Suggested : Culture: The $15.6-million proposal calls for straightening Grand Avenue in front of the complex. This would create 38,000 square feet for new restaurants and shops.

A $15.6-million plan to add restaurants and shops to the Music Center was recommended Tuesday to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors as a way to enliven the cultural complex and make money for the financially strapped county government.

The proposal calls for straightening the now-curving Grand Avenue in front of the county-owned center to create 38,000 square feet of “commercially usable new land,” the county’s chief administrative officer, Richard B. Dixon, said in a report to supervisors.

The project would add at least two restaurants and an unspecified number of shops to the sidewalk in front of the center and on the elevated plaza between the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and the Mark Taper Forum. Also proposed is construction of a pedestrian bridge over Grand Avenue to connect the Music Center to the County Mall. No changes are proposed for the theaters.

The plan is part of a larger scheme by the supervisors to make money from private development of county-owned land in the Civic Center.

A 350-room Ritz Carlton Hotel is planned alongside a proposed concert hall, to be named after Walt Disney, on a county-owned parking lot just south of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. The county also has leased parcels on 1st Street across from the County Courthouse and Times-Mirror Square for private development of high-rise office buildings.

The projects are expected to generate more than $3 billion for the county over the 66-year terms of the leases, said Bill Kreger, an assistant administrative officer for the county.

The Music Center Master Plan would be financed by 20-year bonds, paid off from a percentage of the revenues from the restaurants and shops. Once the bonds are paid off, the county would receive an estimated $630,000 a year.

The plan seeks to create “Grand Promenade,” consisting of a landscaped, “pedestrian friendly” walkway on Grand Avenue connecting the Music Center to the proposed Disney Hall.

The plan also would alleviate traffic congestion at the center during performances by opening on Hope Street another entrance to the underground garage at the facility. Currently, traffic into the underground garage enters on Grand Avenue.

Dixon urged the supervisors to approve the plan, which he said is supported by the Music Center Operating Co. But he recommended that implementation be deferred pending further financial studies.

Supervisors are due to act on Dixon’s recommendation later this month.

MUSIC CENTER PROPOSAL Map shows plaza-level portion of a $15.6-million plan to add restaurants and shops to the Music Center. The project would involve the straightening of the curving Grand Avenue and the addition of two restaurants and an unspecified number of shops to of the center. Also proposed is construction of a pedestrian bridge over Grand Avenue to connect the Music Center to the County Mall.