Disney Concert Hall Plan Advances : Arts: Music Center committee grants approval to $200-million project. Construction could start in August.

After five years of delays, construction on the long-anticipated, $200-million Walt Disney Concert Hall project in downtown Los Angeles would begin in early August, under a plan recommended by a panel of top Music Center executives.

The Music Center Executive Committee this week recommended that the Music Center board of directors grant final approval to the hall, the new home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. More critical, the panel urged directors to authorize raising $17.5 million in additional construction funds.

Approval by the full Music Center board of directors Monday would pave the way for groundbreaking to begin on the project’s 2,500-car parking garage in early August.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has approved the hall’s design and a bond issue of about $110 million to cover costs of the garage.

Under the timetable, the 2,380-seat concert hall would open in 1996, according to Frederick Nicholas, chairman of the Walt Disney Concert Hall Committee overseeing the project.

Nicholas said the budget for the hall and garage is slightly less than $200 million.

“We’re all very excited about this,” Nicholas said in an interview Thursday.

Lillian Disney, Walt Disney’s widow, donated $50 million to the Music Center in May, 1987, toward Disney Hall. Renowned architect Frank O. Gehry was selected the next year to design the center on county-owned land across from the Music Center complex on Bunker Hill.

Assorted delays have postponed and changed the hall’s design and construction for more than three years. Gehry’s final design was unveiled last fall.

The design calls for extensive gardens and public spaces in addition to the concert hall.

A $110-million bond issue, approved by the Board of Supervisors last December, is expected to cover costs of the six-level underground garage; Los Angeles County would keep all proceeds from the parking facility, Nicholas said.

The Disney gift, meanwhile, is expected to grow to more than $75 million through interest and other earnings, Nicholas said. Sharon Lund and Diane Miller, Walt and Lillian Disney’s daughters, have agreed to provide $17.5 million more.

Attorney Ronald Gother, a member of the Disney Hall committee, said Disney’s daughters “are extremely pleased that the project will be commenced in the very near future.”

County officials had earlier expressed concern that the hall’s entire $110 million be assured before construction on the garage began. With the Disney family commitment of $17.5 million, the next step will be the Music Center board’s action Monday regarding the fund-raising campaign to cover an additional $17.5 million.

In addition, the Music Center and Disney family have agreed “to use their best efforts” to raise an additional $5 million each to cover any overruns, Nicholas said.