Planning Panel Backs 1st Stage of Playa Vista : Development: Opponents vow to continue fighting the $7-billion, 1,000-acre project. It must ultimately pass muster with the full City Council.

The Los Angeles Planning Commission on Thursday evening gave its blessing to the vast Playa Vista development near Marina del Rey, clearing a key hurdle for the $7-billion project.

By a 3-1 vote, the panel sided with backers of the residential, office, retail and hotel project in concluding that its innovative design and the jobs it would create outweigh environmental concerns. Commissioner Valeria Velasco was the lone dissenter.

“It’s an important step and it means we can move forward,” said Nelson Rising, senior partner with developer Maguire Thomas Partners, after the six-hour hearing, attended by at least 300 people.

Opponents, some of whom want to scale back Playa Vista and others who want to block it completely, pledged to continue their efforts to derail the project.

“This is one forum. There will be plenty of others,” said state Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica). Hayden opposes the project on grounds that it will worsen traffic and air quality in the busy corridor between Los Angeles International Airport and Santa Monica.

Councilwoman Ruth Galanter, in whose district Playa Vista is located, took a more conciliatory approach, saying she believes “the project can be made supportable, but it’s not there yet.”

Galanter repeated her concern that the city cannot turn down the project and deny Maguire Thomas use of its property without risking a lawsuit that could cost many millions of dollars in damages.

Playa Vista--which stretches over nearly 1,000 acres from the San Diego Freeway almost to the ocean--still faces scrutiny from the City Council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee. It must ultimately be approved by the full City Council.

The commission’s support was for the project’s first stage, which would involve construction of 3,246 residential units, 1.25 million square feet of office space, 35,000 square feet of retail space and 300 hotel rooms. The first stage represents only about a quarter of the project.

Ultimately, Playa Vista would house 28,625 residents and become a workplace for 20,000 people.

The entire project, as envisioned by the developers, would consist of 13,085 apartments, townhouses and condominiums, 5 million square feet of office space, 595,000 square feet of retail space, 1,050 hotel rooms and a new yacht harbor with docks for up to 840 boats.

After years of planning and environmental studies, the hearing marked the first public showdown between the developers and opponents, who portrayed the project as an environmental disaster.

“I would compare it to another ambitious project that was developed on the property--the Spruce Goose,” said Sierra Club spokesman Jeffrey Jones, referring to the giant airplane built by the late Howard Hughes. “Once this project is subjected to public scrutiny, I don’t believe it will fly either.”

The developers contend that, if approved, the project’s first stage from 1994 to 1997 would pump $3.2 billion into the local economy and result in a combined $16.6 million a year for city and county tax coffers.

Maguire Thomas officials on Thursday also cited a report that estimates that 34,000 jobs--including on-site jobs and those created among manufacturers, suppliers and service providers--will be created during the first phase. The report, by the accounting firm of Kenneth Leventhal & Co., defines a job as full-time employment for one year.