CITY ADOPTS FRAMEWORK FOR GROWTH CRITICS CALL OUTLINE VAGUE.

Byline: Harrison Sheppard Staff Writer

The City Council approved a vague general outline Wednesday for Los Angeles' vision to accommodate population growth in the next 10 years.

Critics denounced it as inadequate and immediately threatened to go to court as they have in the past to try to force city officials to take a clear stand on its overall growth policy.

``Nothing's been solved today,'' said Polly Ward, president of the Federation of Hillside and Canyon Associations. ``What happened today is an open admission that there are still problems ahead.''

The city has been trying for nearly a decade to adopt a general plan framework that spells out the city's philosophy in meeting the infrastructure demands of an estimated half-million people expected to move to the city by 2010.

But, as critics noted, the plan offers no strategy for dealing with growth and no guarantees that the city will be able to pay for improving the roads and other infrastructure.

Council members acknowledged the general plan framework was an imperfect document but said it can be changed in the future. They also noted it is a general policy document, not one that approves any specific projects.

``It was intended as a growth-control measure, to make sure that we didn't stop growth, but we regulate it and we have the capacity to deal with it in an appropriate manner,'' said Councilman Hal Bernson, who chairs the council's Planning and Land Use Management committee.

``It's merely a document that's used for reference, and as such we should approve it. It does not approve one single project.''

The framework was originally drafted in the early 1990s as a 20-year document addressing a range of issues like housing, sewage and land use. But a lawsuit by the Hillside Federation on the framework's transportation element held up the document for years.

The federation said the document is inadequate because the city says it will rely on applying for state and federal funds every year to fund transportation improvements, but those funds are not guaranteed - meaning the improvements might not keep up with the inevitable population growth.

The judge finally gave the city three options to address the problem, including issuing a ``statement of overriding considerations,'' which essentially says the city knows there is a problem and will do the best it can to address it. The federation continues to believe this option is inadequate and is considering whether to return to court to force more substantive commitments.

The general plan framework is a thick document that spells out the city's approach to issues like housing, infrastructure, land use, conservation and economic development.

The transportation element, for example, calls for a ``multimodal'' approach that gives commuters multiple choices including rail, bus and Smart Shuttle, as well as alternatives like telecommuting and bicycling. Without additional infrastructure improvements, the plan says, freeway travel speeds could decrease dramatically.