MCA to Devise Master Plan for Studios Area

After nearly three decades of piecemeal development of its 420 acres in the Cahuenga Pass, MCA Inc. announced Thursday it will provide city and county officials with a long-sought master plan for future development.

Additionally, MCA executives said they are scrapping plans for a 10-story parking garage, vehemently opposed by neighbors. The garage was proposed for the Universal Studios area near the interchange of the Hollywood and Ventura freeways.

“What this means is sitting down with the community and understanding their needs and concerns,” said Christine Hanson, vice president for corporate communications and public affairs of MCA, parent company of Universal Studios and other entertainment companies. “We want extensive community involvement.”

Following preliminary discussions with the public--including community meetings, open houses and focus groups--about the future of the site, Hanson said, the company will consider its options before going back to the community with a plan. She said the process would take about two years.

The action comes at a time when MCA is pressing county transportation officials to relocate a proposed subway station to a site more convenient to Universal’s amusement park.

Hanson would not predict what effect--if any--the move might have on the company’s request.

In a statement released by MCA, Mayor Richard Riordan, City Councilman John Ferraro and county Supervisor Ed Edelman praised the announcement. Planning officials, long frustrated by the absence of a master plan for the diamond-shaped acreage, welcomed the news.

“I’m pleased,” said Renee Weitzer, chief planning deputy for Ferraro. “We’ve been pressing them for 10 years to tell us what they’re going to do in the future.”

Weitzer said she had told MCA officials such a plan would be required before any more development would be approved within the city’s jurisdiction, which covers about a third of the tract; the other two-thirds is on unincorporated county land.

But because the parcel is virtually surrounded by the city of Los Angles, city planners must therefore take MCA’s use of the land into account for transportation, utility and aesthetic planning.

Until now, “no conditions have been placed on them. Development by MCA has basically been carte blanche, “ said Tom Rath, the city planning associate who oversees MCA acreage within the city limits.

In fact, MCA is one of the Valley’s biggest developers. In addition to the company’s “black tower” world headquarters and the 36-story Texaco building, the site houses Universal CityWalk, the Universal Studios Tour and production facilities, Cineplex and the Universal Amphitheatre, the Sheraton and Hilton hotels and numerous office buildings.

But aside from the completion of CityWalk, Hanson said there are no specific plans for future development.

“We’re starting from scratch,” she said. “That is what we are going to be looking at.”

News of the company’s plan to scrap the garage and develop a master plan were praised by local homeowner and property owner groups.

“This reverses 30 years of the way they’ve been doing things,” said Michael Wester, president of the Cahuenga Pass Property Owners Assn. “We are really encouraged by this. It’s important for the community to know what is going on.”

Polly Ward, vice president of the Studio City Residents Assn., which fought the company’s plan for the garage, said the announcement indicates that MCA officials are aware of some of the “concerns and hostility” in the community.

“I think this means they’re ready to work with us and I trust they will,” Ward said. “The days of ‘How dare you ask us about our plans!’ are long since gone.”

As for talk of relocating the Metro Rail station, Supervisor Edelman, who represents the area that includes Universal Studios and is vice chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said the design and location of the Universal City station will be decided based on what provides the best service to the public.

The Universal City station for the Metro Rail Red Line is currently planned to open in the year 2000 on Lankershim Boulevard near the front entrance of Universal Studios Tour but half a mile downhill from most of the park’s major attractions.

But over the past month, MCA executives have quietly met several times with MTA representatives to discuss moving the planned station to within walking distance of Universal CityWalk, a popular new promenade of restaurants and shops adjacent to the park.

While county transportation officials call the idea “intriguing,” they say that altering the plans this late in the project’s schedule would mean renegotiating construction and design contracts and federal grant agreements, delaying construction of the station by at least a year.

But MCA has unique influence over the transportation authority.

Under a 10-year-old state law, MCA can withhold $6 million in property assessment fees the agency is depending on to build the station. MCA executives have said that the company is reluctant to pay the assessment if the station will not benefit its business.