In Panorama City, a long defunct Montgomery Ward marred by graffiti would be replaced by hundreds of apartments, boutiques and restaurants as a historic shopping mall breaks ground on its first major expansion in more than half a century.

In Sherman Oaks, a former Sunkist headquarters would undergo a similar mixed-use makeover, nearly encircling the citrus-empire landmark with shops and apartment blocks.

Both projects sit on 9 acres. Both would need zoning changes to get built. And both could soon be sunk by Measure S, a Tuesday ballot measure that aims to restrict growth while reforming Los Angeles land use. But the 5-mile divide between both is wide.

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Some in the working-class northeast San Fernando Valley say the Measure S initiative would kill the first shot at economic development for Panorama City in decades. Others in the tonier Southeast Valley say it could rein in rampant overdevelopment, overflow parking and traffic in Sherman Oaks and beyond.

“It’s a tale of two Valleys,” declared Councilwoman Nury Martinez, who represents the largely Latino Panorama City, staring at the paint peeling off the Ward’s department store across from the historic Panorama Mall, which has revealed plans to double in size. “The haves and have-nots.

“We want equity. Quality of life. Fairness. And our fair share of good development projects in our district. Measure S punishes communities like this one.”

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Leading up to the citywide election Tuesday, the mailboxes of likely voters across Los Angeles have been stuffed with attack ads both for and against the controversial slow-growth measure.

If approved by voters, Measure S would put a two-year moratorium on any building project that would require a zone change, height district change or an amendment to the General Plan or city blueprint for development. Affordable housing projects would be exempt.

It would also require Los Angeles to update its General Plan every five years, including 35 community plans that govern building rules for each neighborhood, now decades out of date.

It would also require city planners, not builders, to pick the authors of environmental impact studies. Public hearings would take place after work in local neighborhoods.

Most importantly, it would put a two-year halt to the common practice of “spot zoning” that grants builders exceptions to rules regulating height, density, parking and more, until the General Plan is updated.

Proponents include Michael Weinstein of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which has spent nearly $2.6 million this year to back the measure, and former Mayor Richard Riordan. Opponents include labor unions and major developers, which have spent $4.5 million, according to campaign filings.

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Supporters of Measure S, known as the Neighborhood Integrity Initiative, say it would fix a “pay to play” system in which developers cut cozy deals at City Hall to get approval for projects that don’t conform to community zoning.

They say such deals have caused rampant overdevelopment in some neighborhoods, encouraging luxury housing over affordable rents while clogging streets with parked cars and traffic.

“This is the Proposition 13 of this generation, said Richard Close, a land-use attorney and longtime president of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association. “We need to stop pay-to-play development, where the big political contributors get to develop what they want by making contributions to public officials.”

Close gazed up at the iconic Sunkist building, on whose parking lot he taught his son to drive, and in whose offices he once held community meetings.

The striking landmark has caught the eyes of drivers on the 101 Freeway since 1971, drawn to its cantilevered columns that flare out three stories like an upside down pyramid with tinted windows. Sunkist Growers vacated its brutalist-styled premises at Riverside Drive and Hazeltine Avenue three years ago.

Its new owner, IMT Capital, has proposed adding nearly 300,000 square feet of new high-end homes and shops, including 278 apartments, 16 percent fewer than it originally asked for. The project, now in its environmental review phase, would require a zone change.

Close said the project is too big, too massive and would cause traffic jams next to Westfield Fashion Square. The IMT Sherman Oaks Project website says it would create an “interactive campus … and a publicly accessible green park way.”

“It’s an architecturally significant building, one of the few in the Valley,” Close said. “What they want to do is create a penitentiary surrounding this gem, with five-story apartments. The result would be more traffic, and overflow parking in residential neighborhoods.

“This project is an example of the Manhattanization of Los Angeles, in the San Fernando Valley and residential neighborhoods throughout the city — and a prime example of why Measure S is needed.”

Not so fast, say opponents. Amid the claims and counterclaims, they say Measure S will undermine sorely needed housing developments, including $1.2 billion in homeless housing paid for by the recently approved Proposition HHH.

They also contend it could tip Los Angeles into another economic recession, causing a $2 billion dent in the Los Angeles economy, put 24,000 people in construction and related jobs out of work and cut $70 million from city coffers — enough to hire 1,000 firefighters or cops.

“This will especially hit those folks who right now are struggling to get by,” Mayor Eric Garcetti said at an against-Measure S news conference with homeless and affordable housing advocates last month. “If Measure S passes, it will be even more difficult to find affordable rent, and it will be even more difficult to find good jobs in Los Angeles.”

It was in the late 1940s that industrialist Henry J. Kaiser and developer Fritz B. Burns teamed up to build the first planned development in the Valley, with good jobs provided by General Motors.

The Panorama Mall opened in 1955 at Van Nuys and Roscoe boulevards — the only shopping center in the Valley that had four major department stores: Broadway, Robinson’s, Montgomery Ward and Ohrbach’s.

But the GM Plant and the plush department stores are gone, replaced by a shopping center and a WalMart. Montgomery Ward has been vacant since it closed its doors in 2001.

The store’s owner, the Icon Co., hopes to turn its 8.5 acres into an Icon Panorama, with 350 apartments on two sides of 250,000 square feet of food stores, clothing stores, restaurants and perhaps even a farmers market.

Next to it, the Panorama Mall also wishes to expand. Its new owner, Primestor Development, hopes to nearly double its size to 586,000 square feet, adding a movie theater and a hotel and banquet hall, according to Martinez.

Besides the nearby Panorama Tower, which is now being converted into lofts after collecting pigeon droppings since the Northridge earthquake, it would be the first economic development in decades for the community.

There’s only one catch: in order for both projects to be approved, their parking lots would need rezoning. And that could be imperiled by Measure S.

“It’s desperately needed and desired,” Martinez said of both projects. She said her daughter cannot even come into the mall’s existing stores to buy her kids school supplies. Or get a good cup of coffee. Or a snack. “It’s wrong. You can get all those things in Sherman Oaks.

“You can’t compare downtown and Hollywood to Panorama City,” she said. “It literally took 20 years to get developers interested in these areas. Now, we’re on the brink of development. They met with the community. We’re looking at new restaurants.

“Now we have Measure S.”

Staff writer Elizabeth Chou contributed to this report.