Following months of heated debates on whether the west San Fernando Valley needs a stadium, Los Angeles planning officials have signed off on a fully enclosed 7,500-seat arena as part of a megadevelopment proposed for Woodland Hills.

City planners approved a project that contains half the capacity of the originally proposed 15,000-seat stadium even though the square footage of the sports arena remains about the same, roughly 320,000 square feet.

In a 208-page document, city officials wrote that they approve an entertainment and sports venue that potentially may host “professional, youth and community sporting activities, live music, craft fairs and exhibitions, lectures and speaker series, performing arts and holiday concerts.”

Just to put things in perspective, Inglewood’s The Forum, a multi-purpose indoor arena, has about 17,500 seats. The Staples Center in Downtown L.A. offers 21,000 seats.

Despite an original proposal to build a stadium with a partial roof, officials recommended building a fully-enclosed arena.

“Entertainment venues are limited in the San Fernando Valley, and it would be appropriate and desirable to provide such a venue in the San Fernando Valley,” according to the document.

This is not a final approval and residents will have until Aug. 1 to file an appeal. And there are still more approvals before the project is fully greenlighted. But the zoning administrator’s nod was a step forward for a massive project that, if ultimately approved, will alter the landscape of the area, creating a more urban feel, anchored by a mix of commercial and residential spaces.

A Westfield, LLC, spokesperson wrote in an email that “we were certainly disappointed in the determination on some of the specifics regarding the Sports & Entertainment Center.” But the developer is “pleased the determination embraced the idea of a Sports & Entertainment Center, as well as its size within overall footprint of the project.”

Woodland Hills resident Susan Stearns said even though the approved stadium would have fewer seats than originally anticipated, she said the venue is still not welcomed by many residents.

“We still don’t want it there,” she said. “We have so much congestion, crime and loitering.”

But L.A. City Councilman Bob Blumenfield, whose district includes Woodland Hills’ Warner Center, called the city planners’ decision to downsize the venue “reasonable” given “the lack of information” about who would operate the site.

“The venue has been my biggest concern in terms of the size and scope and whether it fits with our community,” he said. “In order to make a decision we really need to have a better sense of what they’re envisioning.”

If approved, the 34-acre proposed site developed by global firm Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield will include 5,610 on-site parking spaces along with a mixed-use district with about 1,400 multi-family residential units, roughly 244,000 square feet of shops and restaurants, about 630,000 square feet of office space, with a hotel with up to 570 hotel rooms.

In recent months, supporters blasted the proposal, which they said would turn a largely vacant Promenade mall into a live-work district where people can reside, work and spend weekends, helping alleviate traffic on the congested 101 Freeway.

But residents feared the new stadium would attract rowdy crowds, worsen pollution and traffic congestion near their homes and build residential units that are too expensive for many site’s employees to afford.

The project is built within the Warner Center Specific Plan, which has no requirements for affordable housing.

Still, the question remains how the 7,500-seat stadium would impact the surrounding neighborhoods, said former Los Angeles City Councilman Dennis Zine.

“My concern is its impact on the community,” he said. “That question remains unresolved.”