UCLA Scales Back Expansion Proposal Again : Development: Mounting criticism prompted a second cutback at the university. Nearly 25% has been trimmed from planned academic and support facilities.

UCLA Chancellor Charles E. Young announced Thursday a second scaling-back of the university’s massive, long-range development plan in response to a mounting campaign by members of the surrounding community. The two cutbacks trim nearly 25% from the proposed academic and support facilities.

Young said the latest revision of the 15-year growth plan “will not be without sacrifice to the academic program . . . but I recognize that a significant reduction in scope is necessary to enhance public confidence in UCLA.”

The university has been inundated with criticism from members of the Westwood community and elected officials ever since proposing an expansion plan in March that would have added 4.45 million square feet and increased UCLA’s total building space by about a third. Young said at the time that the new facilities were needed to keep UCLA a world-class institution.

As the 11th-largest employer in Los Angeles, UCLA has about 20,000 employees and 34,000-plus students. It has a major impact on the surrounding communities, particularly on traffic congestion in the Westwood area.

And while UCLA promised not to increase traffic in the area, that assertion was widely questioned. The South Coast Air Quality Management District, for example, recently advised UCLA that its controversial growth plan would result in a significant increase in air pollution.

The AQMD weighed in after City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky and other elected officials publicly protested the scope of the expansion plan that would have added to the 413-acre campus more building square footage than is now along Wilshire Boulevard in Westwood.

But the largest outcry came from homeowner and community groups, and they were heartened to hear of the latest curtailment in the growth plan.

“What a nice surprise,” said community leader Laura Lake upon learning of the university’s cutbacks. “It’s a very positive step. . . . We think it’s significant . . . and substantial.”

Young, in a telephone interview, said that being a good neighbor required partial acquiescence to the public outcry. But, he added: “We’ve gone as far as we can go.”

The most unpopular building in the plan, a conference center with 300 rooms for overnight guests, was jettisoned in mid-May because of fears that it would bring hotel-like traffic to Westwood Village.

The remainder of the 750,000-square-foot cutbacks will be spread among remaining projects. But popular segments of the plan, such as the construction of 2,700 housing units for graduate students and faculty and a child care center, will not be scaled back.

UCLA is preparing a new environmental impact report that will be presented to the UC Board of Regents for approval in September.