Hollywood Apartment Project May Set Off LA Anti-Growth Debate
The Palladium Residences, two 30-story residential towers near the Metro subway station on Hollywood Boulevard by Miami-based developer Crescent Heights, is the latest project to encounter NIMBY troubles in Hollywood.
This project may be "the one" that initiates citywide debate over growth, development and the city's willingness to sidestep current zoning when it fits city goals. The project’s next-door neighbor, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, joined forces with a neighborhood activist group, the Coalition to Preserve LA, in opposing the project, claiming the development is too big for its surroundings and will create more traffic congestion, according to the LA Times.
The opposition group announced last week that it has a proposed ballot measure to put new restrictions on mega-projects, which generally require exceptions or changes to planning and zoning rules. The opposition group has the law firm of Robert P. Silverstein, the attorney for Hollywood’s La Mirada Avenue Neighborhood Association who succeeded in stopping construction of the Target store, closing down CIM Group’s apartment tower at 5929 Sunset Blvd and other Hollywood projects.
Crescent Heights’ proposal for 731 apartments on a parking lot a block from the subway station meets the city’s goals of creating high-density housing projects near transit centers, without loss of existing housing. The AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s involvement adds tremendous power to the opposition, but the nine members of the commission appointed by the Mayor to decide the project’s fate are already signaling support for it, saying its site is exactly where high-density housing should go—next to public transit. A vote on the project is set for December. [LAT]
