SHERMAN OAKS : Fashion Square Mall Expansion OKd

The Los Angeles Planning Commission on Thursday approved a zone change to allow a $20-million expansion of Sherman Oaks Fashion Square mall.

The decision paved the way for the proposal to be considered by the City Council’s planning and land use Management committee, and the full council, most likely within the next three weeks.

The project would increase the mall space by nearly 20%. If it is approved, land that is zoned for surface parking will be designated multilevel parking, and land zoned for parking will be rezoned commercial.

“We’re very pleased with what the commission did,” said Allan Abshez, the attorney for the mall’s owner, City Freeholds (USA).

The commission approved most of the proposed conditions of a city hearing examiner, such as requiring the developer to provide 4,388 parking spaces, re-landscape the mall along Riverside Drive and establish a neighborhood fund to deal with future traffic problems.

In addition, the commission asked mall owners to try to relocate a planned loading dock so that trucks heading for the dock would drive down Hazeltine Avenue rather than Riverside Drive, Abshez said.

About three-fourths of the approximately 40 audience members raised their hands to show they were in favor of the project, said homeowner Jim Young, who expressed doubt that all of them live near the mall.

Young and several others spoke out against the project, saying that a city traffic study contained too-low projections for the traffic that would be generated by the expansion and that a street widening intended to relieve congestion could make it more difficult for motorists to enter the freeway.

The commission, saying that a city hearing examiner had recommended project approval, asked only to hear from people who had concerns about the expansion, Young and Abshez said.

“We obviously feel disappointed that they approved it, but we will continue to go to hearings and go to meetings and present our case until it’s a done deal,” said Young, vice president of the Sherman Oaks Property Owners Assn. and a member of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn.