Steps to Ease Greek Theatre Traffic : Transportation: Neighbors welcome study’s release. It recommends new street signs and an alternate parking exit as initial steps.

LOS FELIZ —  A Los Angeles firm that was hired to find a way to speed the flow of Greek Theatre traffic and reduce disruption to neighbors has proposed steps ranging from better signs to the eventual construction of a parking garage next to the Griffith Park amphitheater.

Some of the suggestions are already in place, and neighborhood residents have welcomed them.

The study by DKS Associates is an attempt by the Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Department to answer years of complaints by Los Feliz residents about the noise associated with concert traffic, particularly along Vermont and Hillhurst avenues. The $45,000 study was begun in 1990.

The noise of some concert crowds--honking horns, loud stereos and shouting--is aggravated by traffic tie-ups stemming from the theater’s tightly packed parking and a limited number of exits, the report said.

To improve traffic flow, the study recommended such short-term steps as new signs and expanded use of Western Canyon Road as an alternate exit.

Longer-term measures include installation of a radio system to advise drivers, a $1.2 million automated system to control traffic on streets leading to the park and a 2,500-space parking garage, estimated to cost $8.75 million. The report does not suggest funding sources, and city officials said the long-range proposals would have to come from future city budgets.

The report also suggested shuttling concert-goers by bus from a parking lot at the Los Angeles Zoo, which is about four miles away in another section of Griffith Park.

The study was released last week by City Council President John Ferraro as the theater prepared to begin its 1992 season on Wednesday with a concert by rock veteran Lou Reed. Officials discussed some of the proposals in a meeting with residents.

Members of the Los Feliz Improvement Assn., which has represented the theater’s neighbors, said they were still reviewing the recommendations, but early reactions were positive.

“We’re very pleased that the Greek and the city and everyone is trying,” said association President Kenneth H. Lewis. “In the last year, there’s been a new spirit of cooperation.”

Theater managers already are implementing some of the steps, such as providing more parking-ticket sellers to speed parking.

And new signs were posted recently to better guide drivers between the park and the Ventura, Hollywood and Golden State freeways, said Dennis Treadwell, a city parks services supervisor.

The 6,200-seat theater is owned by the city and run by the Nederlander Organization through a concession agreement. The outdoor theater hosts about 65 performances a year, about a third of which sell out.

The report called for a radio advisory system, lighting and new paving on Western Canyon Road in three to seven years. It proposed the computerized traffic-light system and parking garage after that.

The consultants suggested that a four-level garage could also serve the nearby Griffith Observatory, where parking is scarce for its annual 2 million visitors. The report notes, though, that a garage might not be environmentally acceptable.

The Greek Theatre now has room for about 2,240 cars in three lots, but they must be parked in such a way that concert-goers cannot always leave when they are ready. The resulting traffic can jam Vermont Avenue.

The parks department has experimented by routing some traffic out the winding Western Canyon Road to Fern Dell Drive, which empties onto Los Feliz Boulevard a mile west of the busy Vermont intersection. Treadwell said the strategy has worked well, and the alternative exit will be used for sellout shows.

Ferraro field deputy Tom LaBonge said a separate study is planned to see what can be done to reduce the sound coming from the theater. Residents of nearby Glendower Avenue have said they are bothered by the sound drifting from the theater during some shows.