City Council Approves 3 High-Rises in Woodland Hills : Gateway: The buildings were exempted from the Ventura Boulevard growth-control plan.

The Los Angeles City Council voted 10 to 3 Tuesday to approve construction of a trio of buildings on Ventura Boulevard in Woodland Hills that were exempted from the busy boulevard’s 1991 growth-control plan.

Approved was the Gateway project, a 750,000-square-foot office complex at Topanga Canyon and Ventura boulevards that will include two 13-story buildings and one 10-story structure.

The size of the proposed buildings would not have been permitted under the Ventura Boulevard Specific Plan, which has clamped down on the size and height of new buildings along the boulevard.

The 7.8-acre property, now the site of the Topanga Shopping Center, was, however, exempted from the plan’s height and density restrictions because a 1983 agreement between the developer and city guaranteed a certain level of development on the site, city planning officials determined.

The Specific Plan would have limited the project to about 500,000 square feet, with a maximum height of 45 feet. But the project’s builder will have to pay new traffic fees set by the Specific Plan.

Paul Clarke, spokesman for Ventura Topanga Partners, the owners, said construction would not begin for at least “a couple of years,” because of the sluggish economy and because the leases of tenants in the Topanga Shopping Center will not expire until 1993. After the leases expire, the company would be free to demolish the shopping center.

Supporting the Gateway project was Councilman Marvin Braude, who represents the area. Braude said the developer could have built 2 million square feet on the site and a 30- to 40-story building but agreed in the 1983 pact to accept a smaller project.

Braude said the project would bring “rational development” to an area now marked “by all kinds of shops and disorganized development.”

“Here was an opportunity to do a creative design,” he said.

Voting against the plan were council members Joy Picus, Joel Wachs and Rita Walters. Picus, whose district virtually adjoins the property, said the project is too large and would draw development away from nearby Warner Center, which is supposed to be a magnet for such projects.

Robert Gross, president of the Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization, said, “This project has been protected and shepherded by city officials for the past 10 years. We don’t know why it’s getting such special treatment.”

Gordon Murley, a vice president of the Woodland Hills group, said the project will “only exacerbate the problems of parking and traffic” along this stretch of Ventura Boulevard.

A city report, however, said the project would actually decrease the average daily traffic volume at the site because offices will generate fewer vehicle trips than shopping centers.

On the other hand, the project would increase the number of peak hour trips on Ventura Boulevard because of increased employee commuting trips to and from the office towers, the same report said.

As a result, the developer will be required to install and build $2.3 million in traffic improvements, including the widening of some intersections and the installation of computerized traffic signal systems at others.