Environmental Study on Concert Hall Approved

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved a final environmental impact report for a proposed concert hall and large-scale commercial development, including a high-rise hotel, on a county-owned parking lot next to the Music Center in downtown Los Angeles.

The proposal calls for straightening Grand Avenue in front of the Music Center to create 38,000 square feet of commercially usable land and is part of a larger scheme by the supervisors to make money from private development.

But Sabrina Schiller, an attorney for the environmental group ALARM, told the supervisors that they had failed to consider how much the project would cost in terms of increased traffic and use of increasingly scarce water. A 350-room Ritz Carlton Hotel is planned alongside the proposed concert hall, to be named after Walt Disney.