Fairfax : Hearing on Farmers Market

The first public hearing on the request by the A. F. Gilmore Co. to develop a 2-million-square-foot shopping center at the Farmers Market will be held in the Board of Public Works chambers on Oct. 9, city officials said.

The 1 p.m. hearing will be held before a Planning Department official whose recommendations will go to the City Planning Commission.

Technically, the hearing will deal with a request for a change in a tract map for the 30-acre parcel at the corner of 3rd Street and Fairfax Avenue.

But the hearing will provide a forum for opponents, including elected officials and community groups, to ask the city to limit development at the site.

They are expected to argue that traffic, already chronically congested at several nearby intersections, can only worsen if the project goes ahead as planned. This scenario was included in a recently released environmental impact report on the project.

For their part, the developers have said they are prepared to spend $20 million toward traffic improvements.

Major improvements in the flow of traffic in the area may result from area-wide changes about to be considered by city officials of Los Angeles, Beverly Hills and West Hollywood, the environmental impact report said.