NORTH HOLLYWOOD : Hearing to Address Mall Expansion Plan

The Los Angeles Planning Commission will hold the first public hearing Sept. 21 on a proposal to upgrade and expand the aging Laurel Plaza Mall, a spokesman for the Planning Department said Thursday.

The hearing comes nearly five years after the controversial $150-million project was first proposed.

Everett Shine, vice president of Forest City Development, the project’s developer, said community suggestions have been integrated into the plans, yielding a proposal that is favorable to the community at large.

“My expectations are pretty good,” Shine said. “We’ve spent a long time working with the neighborhood, trying to meet their requests and requirements.”

The plan includes converting the existing one-level, 26-year-old structure into a three-level, 1-million-square-foot shopping mall with three new department stores, 5,400 parking spaces and room for a 10-story office tower.

The environmental impact report for the project was opposed by many individuals and homeowner groups when it was circulated in December, 1991. Major concerns included the massiveness of the project and its impact on the community, both visually and as a magnet for traffic and crime.

Robert Carcia, president of Slow the Overdevelopment Process (STOP), said the 250-member group is trying to reopen negotiations with developers in order to assure that all the concerns are addressed before the hearing. He said the developers’ efforts to involve the community in the proposal have been only partly successful.

The hearing will be held at 9:30 a.m. at the Van Nuys Women’s Club, 14836 Sylvan St.