By DARLENE SUPERVILLE

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal panel reviewing President Donald Trump’s plans to build a ballroom at the White House has set April 2 for a final vote on the project, the chairman said as the agency prepared to give additional consideration to the construction plans.

Will Scharf, chairman of the National Capital Planning Commission and a top aide to the Republican president, made the announcement Thursday at the start of the panel’s March meeting.

The panel will hear additional details about the project from the White House as well as its own staff, and had been expected to vote on Thursday.

But Scharf announced that the vote was switched to April to give every member of the public who wants to comment a chance to do so. More than 100 people had signed up to comment at Thursday’s meeting, which was being conducted online as a result.

The panel has also been flooded with scores of written comments about Trump’s plans to build a 90,000-square-foot (8,360-square-meter) addition where the East Wing of the White House once stood. Trump has said it will cost about $400 million and be paid for with private money. Trump had the East Wing demolished in October.

Scharf said the meeting was being conducted online to ease the public testimony portion, which he said was likely to extend into Friday given the number of people who had signed up to speak.

“They are taking time out of what I presume are busy schedules to join us,” he said. “One way or the other, we are going to make sure that members of the public have the opportunity to be heard on this project.”

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Critics of the project have argued that Trump should not have demolished the East Wing until the National Capital Planning Commission and a separate panel, the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, had reviewed and voted on his plans. The fine arts panel approved the project last month.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a private, nonprofit group, asked a federal judge to temporarily halt construction until the White House submitted the plans both to federal panels and to Congress for approval, and allowed the public to comment.

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon rejected the request last week, and the trust has said it plans to file an amended lawsuit.

LOS ANGELES — Here’s the story … of how a modest mid-century home became a Los Angeles landmark.

The LA city council voted unanimously on Wednesday to designate the the so-called “ Brady Bunch ” house in the San Fernando Valley as a historic-cultural monument.

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The vote grants landmark protections to the house on Dilling Avenue that was used for exterior shots of the TV sitcom that ran from 1969 to 1974.

Interior scenes were shot on a soundstage, with sets that bore no resemblance to the property that become a photo-op magnet for “Brady Bunch” fans.

The show, which lived on for decades in syndication, featured the comic travails of a family of six blended-family siblings — “the youngest one in curls,” as the theme song explained.

The shingle-and-stone home with a peaked roof also appeared in the 1995 big screen film “The Brady Bunch Movie” and its sequel.

The landmark status protects the home, built in 1959, from demolition or major renovations — but doesn’t prohibit them. If owners ever decide to make big changes, they would be subject to a design review and the Cultural Heritage Commission can delay the process to find preservation solutions.

The nonprofit LA Conservancy pushed for the landmark status and CEO Adrian Scott Fine said he was thrilled it was approved. He said fans of the show have a personal connection to the property.

“If you watched the ‘Brady Bunch,’ you knew this house. People make a pilgrimage to see it,” Fine said Wednesday. “To have it designated like this, it makes it all the sweeter.”

When the house went on the market in 2018, the cable network HGTV won a bidding war that drove the price up to $3.5 million — or $1.6 million over the listing price for the then-2,400-square-foot residence.

The house was expanded, remodeled and redecorated to give it trademark elements of the set version, including the wood-paneled living room with a floating staircase and an orange-and-green kitchen.

The process was documented in a four-part HGTV miniseries called “A Very Brady Renovation.”

By MILEXSY DURÁN

HAVANA (AP) — Swaths of Cuba remained without power on Thursday nearly a day after a huge blackout hit the western part of the island in the latest outage blamed on a fragile electric grid and a lack of fuel.

Crews worked overnight to repair a broken boiler at one of Cuba’s largest thermoelectric plants, but officials have warned that it could take three to four days for power to be fully restored.

State media reported that some 444,700 customers in Havana, or 52%, had power, as well as 30 hospitals and 10 water supply stations.

But millions still remained without power, including Miguel Leyva, 65, who lives with his mother and brother, both of whom are ill.

“I have no words to describe what I’m going through: the heat, the mosquitoes and no electricity. The food could spoil,” he said. “I’m aware of all the problems that exist, but listen, it’s been more than 24 hours now.”

Cuba’s Ministry of Energy and Mines wrote on X that the electrical system is operating “in a limited capacity, prioritizing basic services, primarily health and water supply.”

State media reported that two power plants are offline because of a lack of petroleum.

Sonia Vázquez, 61, said the blackout didn’t stop her from selling coffee to passersby daily, saying she prepared it with gas at 5 a.m. under a rechargeable lamp.

“I didn’t sleep last night. Too many mosquitoes,” said Vázquez, who lives with her grandson.

Meanwhile, 57-year-old cafe owner José Ignacio Dorta, said that some of his frozen food has spoiled.

“We’ve looked for ways to prevent further spoilage. We’re working on it. We hope nothing else will spoil,” he said.

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Cuba has long struggled with an aging electric grid and intermittent fuel supplies, but the crisis has deepened in recent months.

Key oil shipments from Venezuela were halted after the United States attacked the South American country in early January. Then later that month, U.S. President Donald Trump warned that he would impose tariffs on any country that sells or supplies oil to Cuba.

Last month, Cuba’s government implemented austere fuel-saving measures and warned that jet fuel wouldn’t be available at nine airports until mid-March.

Wednesday’s outage is the second one to hit western Cuba in three months.

The outage in early December lasted nearly 12 hours. Officials said that a fault in a transmission line linking two power plants caused an overload and led to the collapse of the energy system’s western sector.

Some of Cuba’s thermoelectric plants have been operating for more than three decades and receive little maintenance because of high costs. U.S. sanctions also have prevented the government from buying new equipment and specialized parts, officials say.

Dánica Coto contributed to this report from San José, Costa Rica.