Council OKs Park La Brea Expansion : Development: The revised plan will preserve the landmark May Co. building on Wilshire Boulevard. Included are 1,597 apartments, a hotel and two office buildings.

The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday unanimously approved a proposed expansion of the vast Park La Brea housing complex in the Fairfax district that will include 1,597 apartments, two office towers, a hotel and preservation of the 53-year-old May Co. building on Wilshire Boulevard.

The $400-million plan was much scaled down from the original proposal six years ago, in response to fears about traffic and overcrowding in one of the most densely populated sections of Los Angeles. Preservationists successfully fought the initial scheme to tear down the now-shuttered department store, beloved for its landmark corner gold tower and Streamline Moderne style.

“I think it’s a win-win project,” said Renee Weitzer, planning deputy to Councilman John Ferraro, who represents the area. “This part of the Miracle Mile on Wilshire surely needs some improvement, and I think this project will do that.”

She called the preservation of the building and the many traffic mitigation measures required in the final plan as victories for the neighborhood.

Gregory Vilkin, vice president of the Forest City Development firm, expressed relief that the company received the city’s go-ahead. “It’s a consensus plan. It’s not exactly what we wanted. It’s not exactly what the community wanted. But it’s something that we can all live with.”

Forest City’s plan calls for construction over the next 15 years. But some real estate experts expressed skepticism that the office towers and hotel will be built, given predictions about depressed demand for commercial and hotel space in central Los Angeles.

With the council action, the original 1940 exterior of the May Co. building would be preserved and its interior converted into restaurants, shops, offices or possibly more exhibition space for the nearby Los Angeles County Museum of Art. A later May Co. addition along Fairfax Boulevard would be demolished, as would the adjacent May Co. discount store on Wilshire.

Linda Dishman, executive director of the Los Angeles Conservancy, a preservationist organization, praised the vote and Ferraro’s help in saving the structure, designed by Albert C. Martin and S.A. Marx. “We are very excited,” she said. “This is clearly a building people in Los Angeles feel strongly about, both for its architectural statement and for its cultural history. It’s a link to our past.”

To the north and east of the building--on the blocks along Wilshire, Fairfax, 6th Street and Ogden Drive--the plans call for a 3.5-acre park, 23-story and 15-story office buildings, and a 10-story, 250-room hotel.

The 1,597 apartments will be concentrated mainly along the south side of 3rd Street in buildings between three and five stories. Some will form a new frontage for the Park La Brea complex, which contains 4,253 units on 176 acres and is the largest apartment development west of the Mississippi River.

The project calls for demolition of a tennis club and the shopping center that includes the popular Loehmann’s and Ross Dress for Less stores on 3rd Street. The Ralphs supermarket and K mart to the west will remain. That shopping strip was the scene of a 1985 underground methane gas explosion that injured 20 people, but officials are confident that new construction techniques will vent the methane safely.

Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, whose district abuts the development and who lives nearby, said he voted for the plan because it is significantly smaller than the original, which called for 2,217 new apartments and higher office towers. But Yaroslavsky said he remains concerned about the development’s effect on crowding throughout the Fairfax district.

The City Council previously approved construction of a regional shopping center at the Farmers Market, near 3rd Street. That project remains stalled because of the recession, Yaroslavsky said.