Eric Richardson []

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Eli Broad talk to reporters about Grand Avenue development in July.

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — City Council voted 14-0 today to approve plans for philanthropist Eli Broad's art museum to be built on Grand Avenue, adjacent to the Walt Disney Concert Hall and across the street from the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) and the Colburn music school.

The museum, which would be called the Broad Collection, would contain 30,000 to 35,000 square feet of exhibition space, as well as offices, storage and a bookstore that could be shared by MOCA.

Broad has been involved in many of the large projects taking place on Grand Avenue. He was a major backer of the Disney Concert Hall, a founder of MOCA and one of originators of the concept for the Grand Avenue Project.

Part of that last project is the renovation of the park that runs down Bunker Hill from the Music Center to City Hall. That work got underway last month, even as the larger project by developer Related Companies is stalled in search of funding.

The Community Redevelopment Agency, which will be contributing money to the museum project, approved the plans in mid-July. At that meeting the Shen Yun performing arts group protested that it wanted the land to build a theatre and housing complex, a move it later followed with a press conference at the site. Those efforts have not gained the group any real traction in getting access to the long-spoken-for parcel.

The Broad museum plan must next be approved by the County and then the Grand Avenue Joint Powers Authority.