Hollywood Plan Rewrite

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L.A. city planners last week released a revised community plan to steer development in Hollywood, more than three years after a judge threw out an earlier proposal citing faulty growth assumptions.

The new plan, laid out in a 135-page draft document, still calls for the focusing of most future development along a central core in areas within walking distance of the Red Line subway, just as the 2012 plan did. But there is a stronger call for neighborhoods now dominated by single-family homes to remain as such. And there would be additional tools for historic preservation, including new types of overlay zones and height limits for new buildings near historic preservation zones.

“The update to the Hollywood Community Plan will create the necessary tools to preserve our historic structures, promote transit-oriented and pedestrian-friendly development, encourage production of affordable housing, and provide the ability to reimagine and repurpose our surface parking lots to make Hollywood more livable and more walkable,” said Councilman Mitch O’Farrell, who represents Hollywood. “I encourage my constituents to participate in the public process.”

The plan was greeted with cautious optimism from two of Hollywood’s main business groups: the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and the Hollywood Property Owners Alliance, a business improvement district.

“Most people will agree with the proposal that development should be directed into central Hollywood and that single-family and hillside neighborhoods need to be protected,” Leron Gubler, chief executive of the chamber, said in an email. “Hopefully, the community will come together with any tweaks that are necessary to gain broad support so that it can quickly be adopted.”

Kerry Morrison, executive director of the property alliance, said her group welcomed the plan’s release.

“The proposed plan will promote a transparent and streamlined process that will encourage smart development and investment in our community,” Morrison said in an email. “On the housing front, the plan’s call for a balance of housing and jobs near transit continues to enhance Hollywood as a walkable neighborhood that fosters economic vitality.”

The current Hollywood Community Plan has been in place since 1988. The city released an update of the plan in 2012, which called for high-density development of central Hollywood.

Anti-density activists have fiercely opposed several giant projects in the area – notably the Palladium Residences, Millennium Hollywood, and 8150 Sunset.

After the City Council approved the 2012 update, the La Mirada Avenue Neighborhood Association filed suit to block it, saying it relied on faulty population growth projections to justify high-density development. The plan projected the population to increase from about 200,000 to 250,000 by 2040, despite the fact that population in the area had actually declined 7 percent between 1990 and 2010.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Allan Goodman agreed and ordered the plan to be redrawn to better comply with the California Environmental Quality Act.

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Howard Fine
Howard Fine is a 23-year veteran of the Los Angeles Business Journal. He covers stories pertaining to healthcare, biomedicine, energy, engineering, construction, and infrastructure. He has won several awards, including Best Body of Work for a single reporter from the Alliance of Area Business Publishers and Distinguished Journalist of the Year from the Society of Professional Journalists.

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