The Los Angeles City Council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee approved an ordinance Tuesday that would place a one-year moratorium on new fast food restaurants in South Los Angeles.

The ordinance, authored by councilmembers Jan Perry and Bernard Parks, would impose the moratorium on new restaurants such as McDonald’s and KFC in a 32 square mile area that includes Watts, Crenshaw and Baldwin Hills. Existing fast food restaurants would continue to operate.

Last month, Perry told the Business Journal that she’d like to make the moratorium a permanent ban, the largest such prohibition in the country. The full Council will vote on the moratorium later this summer

The one-year moratorium would include all of Parks' district, the portion of Perry’s district south of the Santa Monica (10) Freeway and a small section of City Councilman Ed Reyes’ district.

The moratorium is meant to stop the proliferation of eateries that serves unhealthful food and also preserve vacant land for other development. It is opposed by the restaurant industry.

Perry has said that she would work to attract other food service options.

"South Los Angeles is ripe for development. Studies have shown that there is a large and growing residential population that is in need of important amenities like grocery stores and sit-down restaurants for the entire family to enjoy. The people of our community deserve choices,” she said in a statement.