LA City Planning Director Michael LoGrande made it clear in a December 20, 2013 memo that the City has not abandoned its commitment to the flawed Transit Oriented Development planning theory that has given rise to Phil Aarons’ Millennium Project and other similar projects in Hollywood.
Therein, he reiterates “the Department remains committed to the important principles of the Hollywood Community Plan,” including “new growth around transit”, the foundation of all the massive buildings with inadequate parking concentrated in the most traffic congested parts of Hollywood. All indications are that the City Councilmembers are still looking for a way to salvage the situation in order to keep their failed planning theories in operation and to continue to serve their developer cronies. They have not learned their lesson.
Councilman Englander is still confusing the hazards from a surface fault rupture with ground shaking by saying that there are earthquake faults all over Los Angeles. Councilman O’Farrell is using the canard that opponents want to stop all development.
The City Council just recently gave $525,000 of taxpayer money to the Phil Aarons led group proposing to cover the Hollywood Freeway for a concrete pseudo-park. Given the City Councilmembers’ history of taxpayer giveaways, such as the $52 million they gave to Eli Broad, another billionaire, for a downtown parking lot they might be tempted to buy Phil Aarons’ Millennium lots around the Capitol Building jinxed by earthquake faults for inflated prices or to swap them for other land further away from the fault where he could proceed with development.
If we don’t keep our legal challenge to their entitlements before the courts in a timely manner we will lose by default. Until we see the City chastened from its defeat on the Hollywood Community Plan Update and Phil Aarons leaving town on his private jet back to New York, it’s not over.
https://www.stopthemillenniumhollywood.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/hollywoodcommplanmemo.pdf