Hollywood Community Plan, aka Skyscraper Hell, Approved by L.A. Planning Commission at Dodgy Meeting

Jay

Why are people so afraid of skyscrapers? L.A. is gonna break barriers. No longer will L.A. be "a giant suburb in search of a city"..

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Beyondpluto

Sorry, guys. It's time for Los Angeles to grow up, literally and figuratively. Hollywood is one of the logical places to do this at. Density begets mass transit, walkability, night life, arts and culture.

Downeflip

Oh geeze... you damn nimbies are afraid of change and development... you are stuck in the 70's.... this is Los Angeles... a big city and will only get denser in the future. You don't like urban cities then move to the rural areas or to sacramento or something. It's time for Los Angeles to act like a big urban world class city... higher density, taller buildings which equal to more people living in a small amount of land space, priority to MASS TRANSIT and PEDESTRIANS(PEOPLE)... not the automobile and roads. Traffic give you a reason to leave your car at home and ride trains, you not only help yourself with exercise but the environment by reducing car emissions. Denser Urban city living and mass transit is more practical, its proven and it works.. NYC, Madrid, Paris, San Francisco, Chicago, London, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Seoul, Toronto etc seem to have it right and have a less polluted and successful city... those cities seem to have it right, Los Angeles will keep screwing up if they keep up with this whole "don't build this, don't build that.. i want my surface parking lot, theres gonna be traffic(as if there already isnt), i want my strip malls and suburban home, i love polluting the air with my car, build more freeways it'll ease traffic but don't build rail lines because it wont help(are u kidding me??), I don't want that building there because it'll block my views and yes even if that building could house people who need a home dont build it i dont care as long as i can see the hills and mountains(selfish much??), you can't build skyscrapers here because we have quakes(so does SF, China and Tokyo)" attitude... seriously the pollution has gotten to your brains... urban density is how Los Angeles started off in the first place... Downtown Los Angeles... used to be the retail capitol of the world and wall street of the west, today is now the most pedestrian friendly place in all of LA and the most urban and most dynamic, best restaurants and a REAL city vibe and energy to it, very walkable, rich history and beautiful architecture, LA used to have one of the most extensive transit systems in the world rivaling New York's... Today LA has been downgraded to freeways and cars... dead street life and and everything is too spread apart... harder to get to places because of highway traffic... transit lines don't have to deal with traffic. and living in an urban environment you don't even need a car.

anonymous

The Mayor held a press conference today filled with city staff & the doormat press & did his typical snow job "Hollywood is capable of handling more elegant density.” The plan, to be considered by the City Council in the upcoming months, is the first of a new series of community plans being drafted by the Planning Department.Also in the works are plans for Granada Hills and Sylmar. Councilman Eric Garcetti, who represents much of Hollywood, said the new plan — which has been in the works for nearly eight years — has wide support in the business and residential community--" Folks, get up & fight for your rights. Can't let a Mayor who would not know "elegant density" if it came out of his arse & Garcetti who has ruined Hollywood to take over our city. Boot them out.

Howard Hercules

we must learn that developers, in most cases, do not do a very good job putting these projects together. in most cases we would be better off if the project had not been built. all development should be a contribution to the quality of life of a community. most of the time they are just ugly, non-conforming nightmares.

meghan

Another thing to watch out for.. Just got word the City plans on eliminating many of our historic buildings..demo-ing them..they will no longer let them get in the way of developer's projects.. Urban Design Guidelines meeting coming up is very important..go their website..That is the last remnant of any oversight and Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, very influential now.. highly funded by these developers.. does not want it.. because the developers do not want ANY guidelines.If the people here don't start to get involved and know what is going on.. we can pretty much say good bye to historic buildings and areas..and that means HPOZ areas.. we can no longer trust that the city will respect and 'preserve' anything.. that is why Hollywood Heritage and L.A. Conservancy weighed in at this meeting..HPOZ's are under City Planning..Historic Preservation means nothing to them.. MONEY from developers means everything to them..and nothing is sacred to them.The first of these plans is in Hollywood for a reason..the city banked on Hollywood being apathetic, not opposing it, not caring..... if it was in Brentwood or any other area , they figured there would be massive protests..So the other plans will follow.. But when home values plummet here, and the roads are even more impossible to travel, and anyone who has views from homes loses them totally..and are suffocating from being enclosed by skyscrapers, and there is not enough emergency services to get to you when we have big earthquake or other tragedy, or when there are scarce numbers of safety personnel for the amount of the higher density.. maybe then Hollywood will be up in arms.. but then it will be too late and then tryand sell your houses .. good luck!If you care, write the City Council Members, NOW, and tell them this is a bad plan and needs to go back to the drawing board. All this upzoning will be a nightmare here..To have no restrictions on building whatsoever will be a nightmare..To put the people before the developers ..and their lives before developer's campaign financing...

Will Wright

In my opinion, the substance we should all be debating here is as follows:

How do we evolve as a City so that we optimize investments, conserve resources, lower greenhouse gas emissions, increase efficiencies, protect the character of our single-family neighborhoods, allow for more economic and demographic diversity in our regional centers, and incentivize design excellence and higher environmental performance?

How do we organize the metrics of regulation so that they provide more certainty and require less bureaucracy and tax-dollars to navigate?

How do we spend less on paper-trails and more on physical and experiential amenities that will improve the lives of all citizenry?

How do we as a City evolve so that we remain competitive with other world-class destinations?

How do we accommodate/ adapt our land-use and infrastructural habits to best fit tomorrow's lifestyles? What experiences do we want to embrace, and which habits do we want to discourage as we move forward?

What if 100 years ago, no one allowed the uses that we now find desirable and healthy in today's version of Hollywood? (Today, one can embrace tomorrow just like yesterday, one embraced today).

With those social, environmental and economic values in mind, I feel the Hollywood Community Plan is a strong first step in realizing a better City.

It is especially meaningful in that if we don't embrace the process of updating the Hollywood Community Plan, then we as a City (under the current structure of our Charter) have no other choice for how to provide clarity of vision.

Think about it: what does tomorrow look like? This is a 35 to 40 year plan. Do you move forward, or do you regress?

Do we lock our heels into the current lifestyles of today - or do we evolve, so that we're healthier and happier as a community?

-WrW

P.S. I encourage the LA Weekly to become more visionary and more progressive. As an editorial voice, it serves a vital role for shaping the health and vitality of our City and we need to have a more inspiring conversation about maximizing the joys and delights of Los Angeles.

Instead, I fear the LA Weekly has sunk into a tea-partyesque mindset that is content with preserving the current imbalances of the status quo.

anonymous

"I feel the Hollywood Community Plan is a strong first step in realizing a better City". - Mr Wright that is your opinion which is quite contrary to the community that lives there and has boldly spoken against more unwanted and uneeded density."It is especially meaningful in that if we don't embrace the process of updating the Hollywood Community Plan, then we as a City (under the current structure of our Charter) have no other choice for how to provide clarity of vision". - The clarity and vision is already there in each & every Community Plan, which were adopted as the vision of the community. It is the developers who don't like that vision. They want the maximum density that is rarely in conformance with the surrounding area or supporting infrastructure. Whose vision are you promoting?

As for embracing this process, it is flawed and illegal and should be rightfully condemned as a document unsubstantiated by data or State law. To quote from couple of other articles on the Ron Kaye site & Citywatch -"Because the Hollywood Community Plan is part of the Land Use Element of the General Plan, it is fully subject to State of California planning codes and administrative guidelines.This update must not only be consistent with the Los Angeles General Plan, in particular the General Plan Framework Element, but also be timely and comprehensive.The 2010 US Census shows that Hollywood’s growth was stagnant during 1990’s and that it significantly declined from 2000 to 2010. The Hollywood Community Plan boldly pronounces that Hollywood will add an additional 50,000 residents by 2030. According to the fraudsters, Hollywood already has 224,426 people, but the reality is that in 2010 its population was only 198,228"."Think about it: what does tomorrow look like? This is a 35 to 40 year plan". - NO, this is not a 35 to 40 year plan. The Plans are required to be updated every 10 years at the most.

The Hollywood Community Plan is not a "Sim City" or "Lego" game where a few politicians, developers, architects and planners superimpose their vision for their own benefit on an unwilling community in violation of State law and supporting data.

Will Wright

Thank you for your comments. I'm not promoting anyone's vision other than my own. That vision being for a City that supports a more holistic, system-wide set of social, economic and environmental values.

We're all in this together and each and everyone of us will benefit from more actively engaging in the community process.

Guest

Your statement is so vague; It reminds me of the polito-speak I heard at the neighborhood meeting, from the City reps. Holistic??? Oh please. As far as everyone benefitting from more actively engaging in the community process, this is not happening. The people who live here in Hollywood are ignored in the process, and the public meetings are a joke. If there was really any community input, this plan would not be in approval process. Obviously if you support "The Plan", as put forth by the city planners, you support suffocating population density, more air pollution, more traffic congestion (I didn't think it could get worse til this plan), more noise pollution, boring chain retailers, out-of-place skyscrapers right next to our lovely Hollywood Hills & banality brought to Hollywood.

And...if you really think this plan will reduce automobile traffic, you're out of your mind. Do you watch tv? Why don't you count how many car commercials come on within an hour. What do you see all the young hip people (and lots of others too) driving around Hollywood? Cool, hip cars, that's what. It's not going away anytime soon, unless you close up the roads...or make Hollywood a not so hip place to be anymore by turning it into Dubai.

rickabrams

Before you pontificate upon what people in 1878 would do, you should learn a little Hollywood history. In 1878 it was not Hollywood; it was Nopalera. For decades thereafter, development was the goal, e.g. the Hollywoodland sign. Then came a time when Hollywood was developed with fine homes along beautiful streets.

After WWII, deterioration began as the city allowed blocks and blocks of stately homes to be destroyed by the building of apartment complexes. By the late 1960's and early 1970's, Hollywood was basically a slum. Then, the city wised up and restricted density and made it economically feasible to restore homes, knowing that some developer could not build a new high rise on Canyon north of Franklin. Hollywood came back to life and all through the hills we had renovations and restorations galore.

Then came Garcetti, LaBonge and the CRA and density increased, CRA blight increased, Hollywood Boulevard ceased to function as shopping place for residents and now Hollywood is in another mad rush to slumdom.

Hollywood has been "developed" beyond its capacity to be a home to families. If Hollywood is significantly downzoned and if we then upgrade infrastructure, then in a decade we may climb out of the abyss into which Garcetti, LaBonge, and the CRA have thrown us.

Will Wright

You may be right. Perhaps the population of Southern California will decline (not grow). But, regardless - I still think we need to concentrate on my question:

Do you have any suggestions?

anonymous

"Where in the City do we want to facilitate this growth"? It is your underlying premise that growth is a given and must be accomodated that needs a factual basis. What is the socio-economic mix of the population and the future trends of that kind and type of growth. Do the proposed high-rises of Hollywood with their tiny and over-priced dachas with little parking accomodate that growth and reflect the reality of the existing population or the future mix. We need an open discussion on these issues that is not reflected in the Hollywood Plan. Just taking a magic wand and upzoning properties to the maximum is not a solution. Half-empty buildings that eat up investor funds, primarily pension monies are a recipe for disaster which is repeated again & again in the LA region. The only ones who make out handsomely are the politicians who get their cut up-front, the developers who use other's money, and the architects and planners who make a living off growth. The losers, as usual, is the community and taxpayer who have to bail out either the banks, pension funds or the General Fund.

Will Wright

Primarily, I mean that we have to analyze the system from a macro-perspective. The system being all the essential moving parts (natural resources) that enable us as a population to live and work in the highly-desirable Southern California region.

For instance, you made a reference about population growth. Where in the City do we want to facilitate this growth? Which areas can sustain it? Which parts have the potential to embrace it and to flourish? If not Hollywood, then we're really only talking about Downtown LA. That's fine for DTLA. But why wouldn't Hollywood elect to evolve, as well?

Or, perhaps another way to look at it - imagine it's 1878. You're living in the exact place you are now in the area that will one day become known as Hollywood. The EXACT same place. As a community member, you are about to take the exact same steps you are today....i.e., planning for your future. The question is: will you allow for the 1932 version of Hollywood to develop? Or even the 1965 version or the 2005 version?

Probably not. You'd want to keep it 1878 forever, right. That is a natural response.

In 1878, you had plenty of space to feed and water your horse. You probably would never image that your neighbors would soon be riding trolley's and driving automobiles.

Here's my logic: things change and they change quickly. If we went from horse to automobile virtually overnight, then what does tomorrow bring? Let's plan our next steps together and embrace that future so it provides the details we find enjoyable and essential to our everyday well-being.

anonymous

Thanks for your response. Not sure what you mean by a more "holistic, system-wide set of social, economic and environmental values". These are such cliched words that unless you can elaborate what they mean within the context of the Hollywood CPU & your earlier comments, they are difficult to understand.

Dick Platkin

The path is to have an updated, citywide General Plan based on current data, as well as such new planning priorities as sustainability. After that you can refine the plan at the local level, along with serious annual monitoring of employment, transit use, and other demographic and transit trends.

But, the Hollywood Plan does nothing of the sort. For example, it uses old demographic data, and specifically avoids any monitoring program. It is nothing but a green light to real estate speculation, without any credible review of changing demographic and infrastructure trends. It is the opposite of what Mr. Wright proposes, which is why his support of the Update of the Hollywood Plan is baffling and unconvincing.

Will Wright

Thanks for your comments, Dick. I agree, the path is to have an updated plan that prioritizes sustainability.

In my opinion, the proposed Hollywood Community Plan will benefit the city and the region by reducing Vehicle Miles Travelled systemwide.

Also, by enabling more certainty in the process, we save tax-payer dollars AND we allow Planners to plan as opposed to react and process a ceaseless flow of variances, etc. This in turn will allow more of our precious resources to be applied to making our City healthier and more competitive.

I think we all have the same goals in mind here. Perhaps a difference in opinion on the most effective techniques available to reach those goals. But the same goals nevertheless - to make the City of Los Angeles equitable, beautiful and healthy.

anonymous

We must do three things; 1. Demand that Michael Woo and Bill Roschen be removed from the City Planning Commission 2. Demand that Michael LoGrande be removed from the Planning Director position, and 3. Never vote for Garcetti.

David Bell

I feel like I need to add something to provide a context to this discussion. The main objection to the Hollywood Community Plan is that it gives developers carte blanch to do virtually whatever they want "by right." What that means is that the community will no longer have any say over future "development." The essential purpose of this plan is to cut the community out of these decisions. It is not a "plan" as that term is commonly understood. It is a bill of rights for the rich. In some places -- Manhattan, Chicago, San Francisco -- the rich have shared a love for the place with the people who live there. Although not all development in these places is perfect, there is a sense of civic pride that drives developmnent toward higher goals. The new Trump Tower in Chicago, for example, may not be to everybody's liking, but no one can claim that it is a hack piece of architecture.

In Los Angeles, by contrast, developers have a legacy of focusing on short-term gain at the expense of this beautiful City. Think of Bunker HIll, a once thriving neighborhood bulldozed to make way for a soul-less office corridor. Think of street after street in Hollywood decimated by ugly, boxy apartment buildings shoehorned into tiny lots to maximize profit. Think of Century City or any office building built downtown in the last forty years: is there anything there worth taking a picture of and putting on a postcard for Los Angeles? Of course not. Everything worth seeing or doing in this town was built at a time when people must have cared: the Hollywood Bowl, the Griffith Observatory, the Chinese Theater.

The next time you look at a strip mall with a line of cars parked in front, ask yourself what might have been there before.

Anyone who has spent any time in Los Angeles has played this same nostalgiac game: what must it have been like to live here in the 20's, the 30's, the 40's? What an elegant, beautiful place this once was. Sure, Los Angeles is still beautiful, but she's been kicked around pretty bad. And itsn't the so-called "Nimbys" who have done the damage. It was Nimbys like those who showed up at City Hall on Thursday who saved the Cinerama Dome from the wrecking ball. It was Nimbys who worked to carve out Lemon Grove Park for the kids of East Hollywood and a Nimby who came up with the idea of putting a "Cap Park" over the top of the 101 Freeway.

Don't let those people who have been getting rich at the expense of the rest of us keep getting away with it. Take back this City before there's nothing left to take back.

Dick Platkin

There is no mystery on how to make Los Angeles a more transit-oriented city. Building mega-projects near transit lines won't do it. But, comfortable, safe busses which are cheap and run on time and which serve many origins and destinations will make a difference. Likewise, a fully funded subway system based on the original MTA 200 mile program can make a serious dent in automobile driving. But these critical amenities don't allow real estate speculators make profits, so they claim, without ever measuring subsequent transit use, that their super-sized projects will be filled with employers, employees, tenants, residents, and customers who all take the subway or bus. If these claims were anything more than a gimmick to get compliant City Hall decision makers to green light their schemes, then the speculators would come back, year after year, with the facts to back up their transit claims. But, there is no monitoring of transit use for their projects, just like there is no monitoring of any of the City's plans.

David Bell

This has been one of Dick Platkin's objections to this Plan from the beginning: the infrastructure necessary to support any kind of a plan is simply missing. There is no plan to update the over-stressed infrastructure of this City because there's no profit in that. Instead of a real plan -- the kind the city planners did in places like West Hollywood and Pasadena -- we get massive development without any concern for the quality of life or the historic character of Hollywood. It's interesting that Disney is preparing to build a replica of "Old Hollywood" down in Anaheim, while the custodians of the real thing are busy trying to turn what's left of Hollywood into Century City.

The reason the politicians in this City are able to reward their benefactors with such vast "rights" to profit at the expense of our communities is because so many people in this City are happy to trust the rich to take care of their needs. Developers are not pouring money into politicians' war chests for the privilege of making Hollywood a transit-friendly, walkable community. They expect a return on their investment. And the Hollywood Community Plan was well worth the money they paid for it.

David Bell

guest

Sorry, but what is wrong with directing growth to the transit-friendly areas of Hollywood? If the growth can not occur in Hollywood, where exactly in Los Angeles should it go? The low-rise and single-family neighborhoods are expressly protected with new policies, as are the historic landmarks. The LA Weekly has become a mouthpiece for the worst kind of NIMBYism - a selfish, elitist conception of city life that is the worst enemy of creating a more transit-oriented, walkable, sustainable, just city. Those who understand what has been happening in Hollywood understand the amount of community outreach that took place is probably unprecedented. it's why this plan took so long to get done. I encourage everyone to actually read the plan and define exactly what they think the problem is and not get hooked on this umprecise jargon that really distorts the issues at hand.

Red

Unprecedented outreach! That's a laugh. I was there. I saw the outreach. And when concerns were voiced, they (the CRA) politely listened, and continued as if no one said a thing.

Community Activist

'The low-rise and single-family neighborhoods are expressly protected with new policies' - what tooth fairy sold you that bag of lies? Did you not read the above article? The proposed charter school that the CPC voted unanimously to approve is directly across from modest, single family homes. A school with that many pupils (875), on a plot of land that small, with no space for outdoor activities or even for a lunch room, is completely unprecented. Because it is a charter school, parents come from all over the city (only a tiny minority are within walking distance). Imagine the traffic impacts on this single family neighborhood, including some of the original residents of the homes - elderly Japenese-Americans. Where are these magical protections you wrote of? I live in a small, two bedroom house and I can tell you that I encountered no special protections when we had a developer trying to build giant medical plaza less than 500 feet from my house.

anonymous

You make comments that make little sense. First, just what is transit-friendly in Hollywood. Second, why should growth occur and based on what. Provide supporting documentation that growth is inevitable and it must occur regardless of planned growth & zones that are already there in Community Plans. If anything more people have left the city than coming here & the kind of multiple-mixed use housing proposed in Hollywood does not satisfy the economic strata of the population reality in LA. Third, get over this over-used idiotic cliched word "Nimby". As for your last comment that it was due to unprecedented community outreach that the plan took so long, pleeeze, community outreach had nothing to do with it. It was the sheer incompetence of the Planning Department that took over 16 years to produce this piece of drivel. Even the old Soviet Union produced 5 year plans.

anonymous

Having to inform only those within 500 feet of changes is NOT informing or notifying ALL of Hollywood..Sorry.. you don't know what you are talking about.. It is an outdated ordinance the city uses to get away with this crap.. The L.A. Weekly covered this , in the final hour..a bit too late..but better than nothing..and good for them.. No other media would touch it..Most did not even know about it. And none wanted to spend the time investigating it with this Dec. 8th date looming . It moved very fast and none had time to really look into it to do a report.No one is against development,, but sensible development..not eliminating all restrictions so developers can build what they want with no oversight..creating this 'by right' environment.. people live here, own homes here..now there are no protections whatsoever.. The infrastructure of the city cannot sustain what is about to happen here.. There are tons of letters on record from LAPD, LAFD, Air Quality specialists, Water specialists, Emergency Services specialists, Sewer management specialists, Traffic specialists.. you name it.. pleading with the city to add this or include that.. pages and pages..they had answers but did nothing to solve all the problems addressed.. the city would not listen.Those who are against this..DID. Members of the Fire Dept were there yesterday for good reason.. So was the LAPD...but sadly had to leave since the meeting happened so late..Development is great..it is not so great when it cripples a city..Not so great when there are not even enough hook and ladders to get to a fire in time, in one of these new skyscrapers before people perish. The city says developers will take care of the traffic problems.. That remains to be seen..And what about all the other problems?.. Good luck. If you are able to get around on foot, or by public transportation or on a bike..good for you..you must live in a very small bubble. Hope you live near one of the very few fire stations.

guest

The purpose behind "directing" growth around the transit areas (metro stations) is to bring in more Federal funds for transportation. I was told this by someone representing the City at one of those friendly neighborhood meetings I went to. Of course I found out later that this is ILLEGAL. This plan is so horrible I hardly know where to begin. The fact that there is so much corruption and payoffs is no surprise, and I guess is like our Congress. Until someone gets out and exposes them, they will continue to get away with it.Yet...I don't see how they can get away with changing the very FACE of our Historical Hollywood like this. In the rendering of Hollywood in the article, I can't even make out the Capitol Records building, our Icon....it's just lost. All you see is the skyscrapers. Hollywood will be just another glass & steel city filled with banality...maybe like Dubai. Fill it with skyscrapers crammed with apartments and cookie-cutter retail chains....yeah, that's really creative, and SO what Hollywood is all about...NOT. Is there no end to the corruption???

Jay

I agree about the capitol records building. The city has a bad habit of not preserving it's icons. I'm all for skyscrapers but can we bring back 1930's architecture?

Meghan

FACT:

Too much Developer's (i.e. MILLENNIUM) money has funded too many City Council members, and the Mayor's campaigns, for too long..The stage was already set for this..

This CORRUPT MAYOR and his despicable side kick GARCETTI, have been accepting money from developers for years.. This all is part of the plan to get developer friendly Garcetti to be the next Mayor so developers can pretty much take over Hollywood (as they are about to do now)..and then move onto all the other areas that next will have to endure this Plan. Granada Hills, Sylmar, San Pedro, and on and on and on..Hollywood was the Sacrificial Lamb, the guinea pig.. whatever goes on here against it, is just better preparation for them in their next onslaught and rape of other cities.

The mayor wanted this..he was paid well by developers to make it happen.. Yesterday was just a formality, a charade.. at the taxpayers expense.

His appointed yes man, LoGrande, was hired do his bidding.

Fact:

The developers have bought The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce..Who have stood by their benefactor requesting on their behalf NO URBAN DESIGN GUIDELINES TRUMP THE DEVELOPERS PROJECTS. Money makes people heartless. They are no different than those that 'Occupy L.A.' were protesting against. They may all be beholdin to developers, but we are not beholdin to do business with them.....

People who live here, don't have to buy here. . Our Hondas and our Toyotas won't be coming from Hollywood Blvd.. Remember the word: BOYCOTT!

Fact:

Millennium has tried to buy out many small business owners in the area.... some still holding out..but for how long?. Will they be able to survive 'in the shadows' of Millennium's over developed monster projects... They have gone through Hollywood gobbling up properties with the promise of more to come. They could care less about our quality of life, obstructing views, changing the whole landscape of the Hollywood Hills and Hollywood ..They will no longer have to request any entitlements to build their skyscrapers here, and rape Hollywood the way they raped the skyline of Boston..

Those in favor of this.. most are being funded by them, some are possibly insane. They certainly don't live here, they're not raising families here, and they don't have to try and drive around here.

Mary Richardson was commended over and over by commissioners for all the OUTREACH..notifying, informing Hollywood about this plan, ongoing, for years.. FACT:

When we discovered most of our community never received any information or notification about the Hollywood Plan and about the upcoming Public Hearings..Nothing.... We discovered the same problem from community to community.. We called her to request her office resend this pamphlet we received in the mail..so our community would be informed and prepared for the hearings, coming up in TWO WEEKS... Thinking most of them got lost...They had never been sent..Mary herself told us on the phone: 'We don't HAVE to inform anyone who is not within 500 feet of the changes"... "But this impacts ALL of Hollywood how can that be?"... "We don't HAVE to inform any others so we don't"....

This is quite a different story than all the misrepresentations about OUTREACH that supposedly occurred that they talked about at the meeting yesterday.. One can only assume that all the other meetings mentioned, that the same people were informed each time, the 'within the 500 foot radius' people.. and the REST OF HOLLYWOOD can all go to hell, and will only know about this when they see skyscrapers going up all around them..

One can only imagine how full those Public Hearings would have been had ALL of Hollywood been notified... There were more City Planning 'Suits' than Hollywood Residents at them..See photo on AOL Hollywood Patch.. and view the pathetically more than half empty room..who are we kidding here?? OUTREACH??...OR how full the meeting yesterday would have been..IF ALL OF HOLLYWOOD ACTUALLY REALLY KNEW ABOUT AND WAS INFORMED ABOUT THIS PLAN. They were NOT. Not by a long shot..No, it was NOT full.

The 500 foot radius loophole has enabled the city to slip the plan through... UNDER THE RADAR. That is exactly what went on here no matter how much they deny it OR CONTINUE TO LIE ABOUT IT...

FACT:

Sheppard Mullin.. pled the case to push this Plan through now.. L.A. Ethics Commission also lists them as campaign contributors to most City Council Members for many years, and the Mayor.

They are Millennium's Law Firm..

Argent Ventures, Millennium's partner, also has contributed to politicos here..specifically Garcetti..

If anyone thinks this Plan ever had a chance of NOT being pushed through yesterday.... they are delusional.

The next stage..The Plum Committee..Ed Reyes..also received campaign contributions from these players...Then onto City Council.. most of them have received campaign contributions from these players..

Those involved at every level this Plan goes through..the developers have bought.

FACT:

An e-mail was circulated the day before this meeting from Michael LoGrande..soliciting his business people, real estate people, developers, and The Chamber of Commerce, to come to this meeting and support him and his Plan.. And they did come....If it was real..

This was a violation of The Brown Act.. This is illegal..

Just as so much of The Hollywood Plan is ILLEGAL

The lid was finally blown off of the all the Corruption going on in The City of Bell ..After this Circus..Los Angeles will surely be next. It won't be long...

anonymous

Thank you for your comments based in facts, although no one person can have them all since the corruption is so widespread. I don't either but let me throw in a few. Bill Roschen, an architect and the Chair of the City Planning Commission appears to make a living with contracts in Hollywood as has been reported in media. He is a mediocre architect who has used his position to get his grubby hands into redesigning every project that comes to the Commission for approval, in other words, he is the unofficial Chief Architect for the city. He & other commission members have held several metings on the Hollywood CPU with staff. No member of the public was ever invited. This disaster, the Hollywood CPU has his fingerprints all over so he and his ilk can continue to profit and get jobs at the expense of the community.

Mike Woo, another mediocre "planner" got a lucrative and prestigious Dean position at Cal Poly Pomona. Wonder how much impact his commision position had. He has to appear innovative, as though the planning field was science, and he has done it for the uninitiated by approving projects with little or no parking. He doesn't have to live there, so he can pretend that he is smarter than others in pushing "smart growth", which is nothing more than density disguised as "smart". Actually, there is nothing smart about it. It has a more familiar name--Third World Housing.

The third idiot on the Commission is Diego Cardoso, who hangs on to an MTA job by declaring that everyone should use public transit.

These indiviuals and the Planning Commission overall don't work in the interest of the community they purport to represent. They are handmaidens of developers and follow their master, the idiot we have as our Mayor and that con artist Garcetti who now wants to follow in the footsteps of the worst Mayor. It is a golden formula--take developer monies; show up at community meetings where the idiot community fall over each other for a photo-op and a handful of votes get them in. How can they lose when except for a few well-informed residents the majority don't care and worse a major daily supporting them. The only choice is to sue the city but don't forget that we have a tax funded City Attorney office who will fight the poor residents to their last penny. Good luck.

Meghan

Yes, the BIll Roschen thing is an Ethics Violation and ofcourse a conflict of interest..Thank you..He should NOT be working for the city, taking architect jobs from Millennium and Columbia Square, AND have his own architect firm..How many paychecks is that.? Thank you for revealing that one. Did not know about Woo..thank you.. Am assuming that Diego Cardoso was the one bragging about our wonderful bustling public transportation system here..What planet does he live on??And oh yes. let's all ride our bikes..with all this bigger density they voted in..we may as well commit suicide! Anything else in the corruption Dept.? Let's keep this going.

anonymous

Hey, its a CAP park. NOT CATS. Maybe someone who knows what the words being said mean should write articles and "report".

Guest

Who cares...cats or caps....it's an AWFUL plan for Hollywood and those of us who live there. The article is well-written and exposes all the sly ways the City Council et al, are using to get this through quickly.

Savewilloughby

i think suing is in order, as this recent 'plan' goes against the city's own recommendations that hollywood not lose one city block of its industrial-zoned land which underpins the life-blood of hollywood, i.e., the entertainment industry. this recent land-grab has nothing to do with planning..

rickabrams

I liked Lucille's opening, "I'm here to make the record for the lawsuit ..."

That is where this matter will be won or lost. We will have one more opportunity to add to the Administrative Record when it goes before the City PLUM. If the objection is not within the Administrative Record, it does not make it to court. That is why written submissions are King!

The physical presence of people only sends a psychological message that the natives are restless and might do something. It plays a role -- for one thing it obtains news coverages as it tells the media that people take this issue seriously.

The City can "lose" the audio and video tapes of any public meeting -- and the judge will do nothing about the City's concealing evidence. I've had it happened and the crook David Yaffe didn't give a damn. The City's destroying evidence just makes the judge's job easier. That is why we must submit everything in writing and in a way that the receipt is verified, e.g. e-mail, fax or make the conform a copy. If you fax comments, please use LARGE type. It will have to go through a few generations of copying and normal size type becomes illegible in the Administrative Record -- and separate paragraphs and use wide margins. When you write today, the real reader are appellate justices two years from now.

A lot of justices are old and need large type. I know I am old and I need large type.

Dick Platkin

Among this Plan's many faults, several stand out, which I wrote up for the City Planning Commission (and was ignored). First, the update is based on old population data. If new 2010 census data had been used instead, the rational for dramatically ramping up densities in Hollywood would no longer exist. Second, the Update is supposed to elaborate LA's General Plan Framework at the local level, but that plan is based on even older data than the Hollywood Update. It essentially expired in 2010, and the city's General Plan should be updated, based on the latest census data, prior to the updating of local plans, like Hollywood. Third, as many speakers pointed out, the public infrastructure and public services for those who now live and work in Hollywood, is already at the breaking point, and increased density will only make this bad situation worse in terms health, safety, and general quality of life.

David Bell

I was one of the 50-odd people who showed up today to comment on the Hollywood Community Plan. I got there at 8:30 in the morning, but when the Planning Commission decided to break for lunch before getting to public comment, I had to head into work. Like the Police Captain and the Fire Chief, I can't take an entire day off for two minutes of ineffectual public comment. As a neighborhood activist, I have been involved in dozens of meetings on the Community Plan -- all to no avail. The scraps the planning deputies threw to the community are typical of the empty gestures our civic leaders are so fond of. We are governed in this City by people who don't care to listen to us. We are not their constituents; we are impediments to their private agendas. Maybe when Hollywood looks like Century City, the people of Los Angeles will wake up to what's being taken from them. By then, it'll be too late.We need good schools, walkable streets, parks, public safety, and thriving businesses. The historic character of Hollywood is an asset that belongs to the entire community. If we can take control of our neighborhoods, we can use these assets to benefit everyone. Until we do, they will be sold to the highest bidder. David BellPresident, East Hollywood Neighborhood Council

thesepeepsrfreaks

odd is right

rickabrams

I am sorry David, but Michael Woo explained why you were not there. He said that you and all the other people who were not present reflected how well the Plan was written and how much all the people liked it.

Apparently "Woo" is Chinese for "ass" or "developer whore."

anonymous

What a surprise! We have the worst -- Mayor; wannabe Mayor Garcetti; the Planning Commission; and the Planning Department---puppets of developers and labor queen Durazo who will choke the city with development. They will not stop till they've driven tax paying citizens and middle class jobs out of this city, all for lining their pockets with contributions and short term construction jobs.