Builder Alters Vast Playa Vista Project : Growth: Company offers changes to reduce massive development’s impact on traffic and the environment. Suggestions reflect a bid to win political support.

Responding to powerful critics, the developer of the Playa Vista project has agreed to make substantial changes in the early stages of the vast project near Marina del Rey.

The changes, outlined in a final environmental impact report released Wednesday, are intended to reduce the development’s effect on traffic in the surrounding coastal area, while providing more affordable housing, improving water quality in the nearby Ballona Wetlands and protecting views from the scenic Westchester Bluffs.

But the revisions by developer Maguire Thomas Partners are not just changes in design; they are intended to win political support for one of the biggest developments in Los Angeles’ history.

Concern about the potential effects of building a residential, office, retail, hotel and marina community in an already congested area prompted a flood of comments when a draft environmental impact report was released late last year.

Los Angeles City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter and state Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) were the most outspoken critics among elected officials.

Winning the support of Galanter, whose district includes the Playa Vista property, is particularly important for Maguire Thomas as the project threads its way through the city’s tortuous hearing and approval process.

Since taking over the Playa Vista project more than four years ago, Maguire Thomas has redesigned the multibillion-dollar community long planned for a 957-acre tract of land between Marina del Rey and the Westchester Bluffs.

The developer intends to seek City Council approval for the first stage of the project this summer. Amounting to about a quarter of the entire development, the initial stage would contain 3,246 dwelling units, 1.25 million square feet of office space, 35,000 square feet of retail space and 300 hotel rooms.

Ultimately, plans call for Playa Vista to be a far larger development that would have 28,625 residents and be a workplace for 20,000 people.

In December, Galanter opposed the first stage of the project, saying that the draft environmental report was inadequate.

“If we are going to be approving a project of this magnitude, we need to have real assurances that the environmental impacts will be mitigated,” she said.

For the last five months, Maguire Thomas, its consultants and city planners have been working to respond to such comments from Galanter, Hayden and more than 200 other individuals, organizations and government agencies.

The final environmental report outlines extra steps to deal with the consequences of building Playa Vista. Although offset by unprecedented mitigation measures, the document still says the project will have unavoidable adverse effects on traffic, air quality, noise levels, energy consumption, aesthetics, cultural resources and views.

Maguire Thomas senior partner Nelson Rising said the comments and the resulting changes have improved Playa Vista. He expressed confidence that the development’s mix of residences, offices, shops and restaurants will discourage driving.

Rising said Playa Vista represents “a sharp departure from wasteful and inefficient land-use patterns of the past” and is “the most environmentally sensitive project ever proposed in the Los Angeles Basin.”

Galanter had not seen the final environmental document Wednesday and reserved comment on the changes until she can study them.

From the beginning, traffic has loomed as a major obstacle to development of the property, long owned by industrialist Howard Hughes and part of his estate when he died in 1976.

To reduce the impact on surrounding streets, Maguire Thomas has agreed to substantially alter its earlier plans for handling Playa Vista traffic. In the final environmental document, the developer promised to add further road and highway improvements, including a new four-lane bridge across Ballona Creek to link the project with a widened Culver Boulevard connection to the Marina and San Diego freeways.

The developer also promised to limit the amount of office space in future stages of Playa Vista if the afternoon rush-hour traffic cannot be dramatically reduced.

The developer had previously promised to finance an unprecedented series of steps to widen streets and improve more than five dozen intersections, install computerized traffic signals and provide buses on the heavily traveled coastal route, Lincoln Boulevard.

Galanter and others commenting on the draft environmental document expressed reservations about the ability of Maguire Thomas to deliver on promises that a significant number of Playa Vista residents would work at the site, eliminating the necessity of long commutes that aggravate traffic and air quality problems.

Galanter demanded that the project contain more affordable housing to ensure a better balance between the type of jobs and housing.

In response, Maguire Thomas promised that 10% of the housing would be condominiums priced at $195,000 or less. Under an earlier promise, 15% of the housing is to be set aside for renters with low to moderate incomes.

The councilwoman, along with the environmental groups Heal the Bay and Friends of Ballona Wetlands, also expressed concern that storm water from the project’s streets could pollute a freshwater marsh adjacent to the Ballona Wetlands that Maguire Thomas intends to create. To cleanse the water before it reaches the wetlands, the developer has agreed to install and maintain filters and catch basins on and off the Playa Vista property.

To address concerns of residents on top of the Westchester Bluffs about how development would affect sweeping views of the city and coastline, Maguire Thomas agreed to reduce the maximum height of residential buildings to nine stories and office buildings to six stories.

To assist the city and school district, the developer promised to provide land for a police substation, a fire station, a library and an elementary school. And in response to criticism about open space, Maguire Thomas agreed to increase the amount of park land.

It remains to be seen whether the changes coupled with earlier commitments will be enough to win the political support needed to get the ambitious project off the drawing board. The first test could come June 23 when an advisory agency to the city Planning Department holds a public hearing on the first phase proposal.