CITY COUNCIL VOTES TO PACKAGE NOHO FOR DREAMWORKS SKG.

Byline: Deborah Sullivan Staff Writer

Hoping to lure DreamWorks SKG back to Los Angeles after the collapse of its long-awaited Playa Vista development deal, the City Council voted Tuesday to develop a package of incentives to convince the firm to build a studio headquarters in North Hollywood.

The council voted to form a city task force of top administrators and officials to pitch North Hollywood to DreamWorks, with Council President John Ferraro and Councilman Joel Wachs leading negotiations.

Sites in other parts of the city also could be offered, council members said, although the initial emphasis will be on the North Hollywood Redevelopment Area where developer J. Allen Radford is pushing plans for soundstages and offices.

``We've got a fantastic site with 30 acres and the ability to accumulate more acres,'' Wachs said.

Los Angeles and neighboring cities have had their eyes on DreamWorks since the firm dropped its plans for a studio campus at Playa Vista.

In North Hollywood, the entertainment giant could benefit from numerous local and citywide economic incentives and other amenities, Wachs said. The Metro Red Line subway would stop on-site and many other entertainment industry firms are located conveniently nearby, he said.

But other council members, including Mike Hernandez and Hal Bernson, said they wanted to offer areas in their own districts for consideration by DreamWorks.

Hernandez suggested Taylor Yard, a former train yard near the Golden State Freeway, while Bernson proposed his district as a general area where the studio might be located.

``I don't have any problem with the North Hollywood site,'' Bernson said. ``It's probably the most ready and the most appropriate. But let's not cast aside the others and say they don't count. Let's give everybody consideration.''

Wachs argued that investigating all possible locations where the studio could be sited would delay potential negotiations with DreamWorks and close the window of opportunity for attracting the studio to Los Angeles.

``I don't want this to diminish the ability to immediately proceed with the North Hollywood site,'' he said. ``We're ready on this site and we've got something specific. If you delay forever you've got nothing.''

Other Valley members backed that view, arguing that examining all possibilities would dilute the strength of the North Hollywood proposal.

``I think that we could be dissipating a focus that could be pretty important to the North Hollywood area,'' said Councilman Mike Feuer. ``If we do anything other than that I think we're making a mistake, because we're trying to be all things to all people.''

Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg was skeptical of the proposal's prospects for success. She said efforts to lure the studio, whose executives are said to be ambivalent about locating in Los Angeles, ``a dream working.''

She said, however, that the city should boost its chances by pitching as many sites as possible to DreamWorks executives.

``If there are various sites available, let them decide, instead of us pre-deciding,'' she said.

DreamWorks has its animation unit in Glendale, its record facilities in Beverly Hills and offices in Universal City.