Park Labrea Plan Raises Traffic Concerns : Development: Study concludes that congestion at 7 busy intersections would be increased if the massive complex goes ahead.

The traffic impact of a massive development proposed for the Park Labrea complex is unacceptable and must be greatly reduced, City Councilman John Ferraro said Monday.

Although the developers have agreed to millions of dollars’ worth of traffic improvements, engineers have concluded that congestion at seven busy intersections would be increased if the project goes ahead, Ferraro said.

His comments, presented by an aide at a public hearing in the City Council chambers, came after five years of preparation by Forest City Development, which owns the property together with the May Co.

Their proposal calls for the demolition of the May Co. store at the corner of Fairfax Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard to make way for a 500-room hotel and twin 25-story office towers. The old building has been hailed by architectural historians as worthy of landmark status, although the developers dispute that.

Their plan also includes 1,800 new rental units along 3rd Street, at the northern edge of the Park Labrea complex, and construction of housing for more than 600 senior citizens on 6th Street.

One thousand apartments would be built on the site of the existing Park Labrea Shopping Center, and 800 new units would take the place of the Tennis Place, a set of privately operated courts. Park Labrea, with about 10,000 residents in 4,200 units, is already the largest apartment development in the West.

The developers dropped their original idea of building a shopping center at the May Co. site, but Renee Weitzer, Ferraro’s planning deputy, said that the latest plan is still too big, especially because the city has already approved construction of a regional shopping center at Farmers Market, less than a mile away.

“Our bottom line is that this proposed development is just too much for this area,” Weitzer said. “It must be greatly reduced to minimize the impact.”

Ferraro, whose district includes both Park Labrea and Farmers Market, also serves as City Council president, a dual position that gives him considerable clout in the planning process.

The developers had no immediate response, but Joan Kradin, spokeswoman for Forest City, said Tuesday that the protests from Ferraro, several local residents and a representative of the County Museum of Art did not go unheard.

David Hamlin, president of the Park Labrea Tenants Assn., said his group was extremely concerned about increased air pollution from the expected traffic increase.

With a high percentage of elderly residents and a day-care center at Park Labrea, he said, “What you have is canaries in a coal mine: By the time you find out about the air quality, it will be too late--the canaries will be dying.”

A spokeswoman for the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce was the only audience member to speak in favor of the proposal.

And Kradin, the developers’ spokeswoman, said: “The proposal that’s on the table is the one that we believe works the best, but we understand what the councilman--and the community--is saying, so we’ll try to continue to work with them.

“We’ve been working on this for five years, and the current project is significantly scaled down from the original proposal, and we believe that we have mitigated the impacts of the project as proposed,” she said.

After a four-hour session, the presiding officers, Michael Davies, a city planning administrator, and Horace E. Tramel Jr., an associate zoning administrator, said they would keep the record open until Dec. 23 to allow for written comments.

Their recommendations on planning and zoning changes requested by the developers are not expected until February or March.

At the hearing, Forest City architect Scott Johnson said the developers are proposing to deal with four separate parcels at once in hopes of concentrating their commercial development rights at the May Co. site.

Their vision is of a “mixed-use urban village,” he said, with low-rise buildings along 3rd Street, a 12-floor configuration for the senior housing and the highest buildings concentrated along the Wilshire Boulevard office corridor.

The May Co. site would include four levels of above- and below-ground parking, he said, distributed among 3.6 acres of open space, more than twice the expanse of downtown’s Pershing Square.

One parking structure would complement a traffic and parking building planned by the County Museum for the east side of Ogden Drive, architect Ernie Vasquez said, but Donald Baker, a museum official, said the museum is saving the spot for a decorative arts wing and garden.

He joined in Ferraro’s protests, saying his institution was concerned about added density and traffic.

Several architectural historians spoke out against the proposed demolition of the May Co. building, whose distinctive gold column and porte-cochere parking area recall the heyday of the Miracle Mile shopping district in the 1940s.

“The prominent regional historians and authors identify the May Co. building as historically and architecturally significant and worthy of preservation,” said Barbara Hoff, director of preservation issues for the L.A. Conservancy, a preservationist group.

“Isn’t it sad that that which knowledgeable outsiders see as notable and unique is treated here with such casual disdain?” said Mitzi Mogul, president of the Art Deco Society of Los Angeles.

“Urban villages are not manufactured, and projects like this tend to alienate themselves rather than attract people,” she said.

Burt Pines, an attorney for the developers, said their experts have found that the May Co. building is less than distinctive.

Though the city’s Cultural Heritage Commission has recommended the building for landmark status, the City Council has yet to take action on it. In any case, landmark status is only good for two years of protection at most, although Weitzer said that a stiffer ordinance has been proposed.