Fox Scales Back Plan to Expand on Its Lot : Development: The move, which draws Yaroslavsky’s support, comes as a City Council panel prepares to vote on the proposal. Nearby residents remain skeptical of the project.

Fox Studio has agreed to make modest changes to its proposed $200-million expansion in order to win the support of Los Angeles City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky on the eve of a crucial City Council committee vote.

As part of a compromise announced by Yaroslavsky and studio officials last week, Fox will reduce its proposed expansion by up to 150,000 square feet. It had wanted to build 771,000 square feet of office and production facilities at the venerable 53-acre Century City studio.

Additionally, the studio has dropped a demand that it be allowed to build a future third phase of the project at its own discretion without the need of additional city environmental reviews.

Under the terms of the arrangement, Fox would also pay $5 million for road and street improvements in the Century City area and $500,000 for speed bumps and other traffic improvements in residential neighborhoods.

“We think, tough as it is--and it is tough--we will be able to proceed,” Fox Vice President David Handelman said, referring to the compromise worked out with Yaroslavsky.

“We just hope that this is the end of the exactions placed on the project by the city,” he said.

Yaroslavsky, who represents the area, is widely viewed as holding the key to swift approval of the project, which has been subjected to public scrutiny for more than three years, and which the councilman has helped to stall for several weeks.

The compromise comes as the council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee prepares to consider the matter on Wednesday, with a final vote by the entire City Council likely on June 23.

The studio, owned by media baron Rupert Murdoch, wants to consolidate its movie and television operations, including KTTV-TV--now in Hollywood--and 20th Century Fox Film Corp. at the same 53-acre parcel, creating a 1.9-million square-foot facility.

Fox needs the city’s approval to pursue the plan and to extricate itself from a commitment to build 2,200 condominiums on part of the property.

Yaroslavsky, angered that Fox officials tried to bypass him and arrange a hearing before the committee last month, had, until last week, essentially put the project on hold while seeking further compromises from the studio.

In announcing the compromise on Thursday, Yaroslavsky said it will protect badly needed jobs while being sensitive to the quality of life of neighborhoods near the studio.

“Not everyone is going to be pleased, but this is something the vast majority of people can be happy about,” he said.

Critics of the project who live in the Cheviot Hills area south of the studio have expressed fear that the excess traffic the expansion will generate will inundate their already congested streets.

Upon learning of the compromise late last week, opponents remained skeptical.

“It sounds like minimal changes to me,” said Val Cole, president of the California Country Club Homes Assn. “It’s what I would call a ‘trust me’ agreement.”

The Los Angeles Planning Commission on April 1 gave the studio virtually everything it had requested after studio officials said the expansion would create 1,600 jobs.

Although the traffic flowing from the studio’s gates still will more than double under the conditions worked out between Yaroslavsky and Fox officials, several elements of the plan are designed to make it more attractive to critics.

The compromise allows Fox to convert 50,000 square feet of office space to production space, which generates less traffic. The other 100,000 square feet of office space trimmed from the project could be added to the third phase of the development, but only if strict guidelines were met.

Under the proposal, Fox will be able to complete the project in phases within certain limits on the amount of traffic each phase generates, with vehicles entering the studio being counted electronically. Under a complicated formula devised to monitor the traffic flow, the studio would be subject to fines if the limits were exceeded.

The traffic limits imposed under the compromise worked out with Yaroslavsky are stricter than those recommended by the Planning Commission.

In addition, the compromise would restrict building heights along Avenue of the Stars to five stories, compared with seven stories allowed by the Planning Commission.

Opponents have argued that fines for exceeding the traffic limits are of little consequence, suggesting that the studio would be willing to pay the penalties as a part of the cost of doing business.

But Handelman, the Fox vice president, dismissed that criticism last week.

“First, nobody willingly pays fines,” he said. “But aside from that, we would lose development rights if we didn’t meet the traffic requirements. Our ability to proceed with the project will be suspended if we’re not in compliance.”

Yaroslavsky said that before negotiating with Fox he had “solicited input from a wide variety of individuals” and that the compromise “(bears) the imprint of our entire community.”

But opponents expressed a different view.

“He sure didn’t talk to us, and we wanted to meet with him,” said Cole, the Fox critic.

Other longtime foes of the project said they want to know more about the agreement before passing judgment.

“For one thing, we want to see that the language of any development agreement is not approved in such a way to allow Fox to subdivide the property at some point in the future,” said Mindy Gastor of the Cheviot Hills Homeowners Assn. “We’re going to have to see the details.”