SHERMAN OAKS : Council OKs Zoning for Mall Expansion

Over the protests of residents living near Sherman Oaks Fashion Square mall, the Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday voted to approve a zone change that removes the last hurdle in the mall’s quest to add more than 170,000 square feet under a $20-million project.

The expansion will increase the size of the mall by nearly 20% to 1.1 million square feet and add 545 parking spaces for a total 4,388 spaces. Most of the expansion--about 129,000 square feet--will occur in the third anchor store that was vacated by I. Magnin. The mall’s owner, City Freeholds USA, would like that space occupied by Nordstrom.

“I’m very happy about the result,” said Brian Pickering, vice president of City Freeholds. “We did work very hard in talking with the community” about their concerns with the project.

Pickering said his company has not yet struck a deal with Nordstrom, but that negotiations are going very well.

In a procedural glitch, the project was at first approved by the City Council without comment, then brought up again later for reconsideration at the request of Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, who intervened to give expansion opponents a chance to speak.

Expansion critics said the project would exacerbate traffic problems in the area, and charged that the public had not had adequate opportunity to comment on the proposal, which they said had been “fast-tracked.”

“Due process has been denied us,” said Jim Young, chairman of the Fashion Square Committee of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn. “There doesn’t seem to be anyone listening.”

But Yaroslavsky said the mall expansion would be good for Sherman Oaks.

“Any sign of confidence in Sherman Oaks or any other earthquake-ravaged area is a good thing,” he said.

The council approved rezoning of one section of mall land from surface parking to multilevel parking, and another section from parking to commercial. Under the conditions of approval, the developer must widen nearby streets to accommodate increased traffic that the project is expected to generate, and re-landscape the front of the mall along Riverside Drive.

In addition, the developer must post a $50,000 bond to make additional transportation improvements if they are deemed necessary, and establish a fund of up to $175,000 to pay for raised medians and signs to deter motorists from cutting through neighborhoods on their way to the mall.

Pickering said he hopes to begin construction next March or April and open the new anchor store in the fall of 1996.