Helen McCann, the vice president in charge of Universal Studios Inc.’s controversial expansion plan, is leaving the company at the end of the year, raising more questions over the future of the three-year project.

George H. Garfield, who was hired in November from Walt Disney Imagineering, will assume McCann’s duties for the master plan as senior vice president of global real estate facilities at Universal Studios.

McCann’s pending departure is described as a personal choice. She had been with Universal since the company began its $1 billion expansion effort in 1995 and was among the most visible executives connected with the project.

Her departure, and the realignment of her duties within a larger post that encompasses Universal’s worldwide holdings, is leading some local leaders to speculate that the company intends to shift its focus away from local development and toward fixing its operational problems.

McCann could not be reached for comment. Garfield referred all queries to Universal’s public relations department.

“I think Universal is finally coming to the opinion that they don’t need this aggravation,” said Marvin Selter, a former chair of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association who sits on Universal’s neighborhood committee, Universal Tomorrow. “I think we’ll lose a tremendous amount of revenue.”

In November, Universal called off what was to have been its final meeting with the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission, saying it wanted to take a step back and evaluate the costs and benefits of the decisions that had been handed down over the course of the 22-month-long review.

Universal has been seeking to add 3.2 million square feet of new development to its Universal City property, with about half that devoted to recreational uses and the remainder devoted to office and studio uses.

Since first proposing the expansion, there has been opposition to the plan from politically influential homeowners, who expressed concerns about potential traffic congestion and noise. To placate those opponents, Universal agreed to slash the size of its project by about 40 percent, reducing the number of hotels it plans to build and eliminating plans for a second theme park.

The current project calls for two new hotels, adding 388,000 square feet to the existing theme park, and an additional 250,000 square feet of development at its CityWalk retail shopping area.

McCann’s departure comes amid a wholesale restructuring at the company, which included the recent ouster of Universal Studios Chief Executive Frank Biondi Jr. The company has been hit hard this year in its film division, with several recent releases scoring poorly at the box office. Its $10.4 billion acquisition of music giant Polygram is seen as a last gasp at turning things around.

Some have said that with management in transition, Universal’s local expansion has been given a lower priority. The company has had more success building and expanding theme parks in Orlando, Fla., Spain and Japan.

Iris Gelt, the Universal spokeswoman, characterized the comments about killing off the expansion effort as speculation and would not comment further on McCann’s exit or on Garfield assuming her responsibilities. She would not say whether McCann’s position, as it had existed, would be replaced in the future.

Tony Lucente, president of the Studio City Residents Association, which has worked closely with Universal on its planned expansion, said the company has shunned the association’s efforts to establish a dialogue.

“I think the relationship had seriously deteriorated and virtually communications had ceased,” Lucente said. The residents had staged numerous objections to the size and scope of the Universal expansion.

Lucente said that he and the other residents were drafting a letter to Edgar Bronfman Jr., chief executive of Universal’s parent, Seagram Co., in the hopes that they can renew discussions now that McCann has left. “I think it’s an opportunity to wipe the slate clean and build what we’ve been seeking all along, a cooperative planning relationship where Universal openly solicits and recognizes feedback from the community.”

But Lucente also wonders whether the Universal Studios expansion has been overshadowed by the company’s efforts to improve its operational performance in other divisions. “How much of their resources do they want to put into this when the movie business is so bad?” he said.