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When state legislation designed to override local zoning laws and permit construction of apartment buildings in a half-mile swath around transit lines across California died earlier this year, opponents said the decision of where to build desperately needed housing should be left to local communities.

That is about to be put to the test.

A Los Angeles City Council committee is set to vote today for a measure to permit construction of up to 6,000 units of housing in apartment buildings along the new Expo train light-rail line, which goes from downtown Los Angeles to Santa Monica.

This is not as ambitious as the plan put forward by Senator Scott Wiener, a San Francisco Democrat, with its threat of apartment buildings popping up on blocks of single-family homes. That plan produced a storm of opposition from critics who assailed it as a threat to neighborhoods and local control. The bill never made it out of committee.

Mr. Wiener praised Los Angeles for moving to act, but said it did not go far enough. “This rezoning is clearly an improvement on what’s there today,” he said. “But it’s largely focused on the main thoroughfares. Once you get an inch off the main thoroughfare, it’s not rezoned at all.”