On February 12, the Los Angeles City Planning Commission considered a request by AP Properties, Ltd. and JMB Realty to develop a 38-story office building in Century City. The project, proposed for the corner of Constellation Boulevard and Century Park West, was opposed by Councilman Mike Feuer and homeowners in Century City, Cheviot Hills, Rancho Park and Beverly Hills. During the six-hour hearing, project proponents cited economic growth and the limited supply of office space on the westside while opponents relied on concerns over traffic, aesthetics and a flawed administrative process.
The developers are proposing a new traffic control technology known as an Adaptive Traffic Control System ("ATCS"). ATCS involves outfitting traffic signals in the area with cameras, linking the cameras and signals by computer, and allowing the computer to control and coordinate the signals to facilitate traffic flow.
At the hearing, the Los Angeles Department of Transportation expressed confidence in the effectiveness of the new system to mitigate increased traffic caused by the development. Opponents, however, pointed out that the ATCS technology is largely untested and has been used only on "highway-like" streets, such as Pacific Coast Highway, that are bisected only by smaller streets. The ATCS system tends to let traffic flow on the larger thoroughfare at the expense of the smaller streets. Councilman Feuer argued that such technology may not improve traffic flow in an area with the complex web of major streets found in Century City because speeding up one thoroughfare can only be done by slowing down another one.
While the Commission generally supported the high-rise project as appropriate for Century City, members expressed concern over the fact that the ATCS technology has not been tested. The commission decided to hold its decision over until the next meeting so that the parties could agree on an appropriate testing method. The commission indicated that if the tests reasonably showed that the ATCS technology would effectively mitigate increased traffic, it would approve the project. Otherwise, the developer would have to scale down the project or find an alternative method to deal with increased traffic.