HOLLYWOOD, CA — Make way for more housing, Hollywood. City officials have advanced a long-term plan that calls for welcoming 58,000 new residents, 35,000 new housing units and 29,000 new jobs in the neighborhood over the next two decades.
The plan was approved after a four-hour meeting of the Planning and Land Use Management Committee Monday. The City Council will need to approve it before it becomes official.
The plan calls for directing development around transit stops, such as the neighborhood’s five Metro B Line stations and making it easier for residents to get around without a car. Building height would be limited around hillsides and historic areas, with the idea of keeping high-rises around major boulevards. The document covers Hollywood, the hills and Los Feliz.
Find out what's happening in Hollywoodwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
In an editorial published earlier this year, the Los Angeles Times said the Hollywood plan — and one for downtown, which was also advanced Monday — are important pieces for the city to achieve state mandates for building 455,000 housing units by 2029.
“The Hollywood Community Plan Update also encourages housing growth along transportation corridors, reinforces Hollywood’s media and entertainment jobs center, provides more mobility options and puts forward more sustainable solutions,”Planning Director Vince Bertoni said in a statement.
Find out what's happening in Hollywoodwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
The plan also covers citywide issues such as increasing affordable housing, supporting business, introducing tenant protections, seeking more open and green spaces, and fostering a greater sense of community.
Priya Mehendale, a senior city planner, said the Hollywood plan was “35 years in the making.” Bertoni cited budgetary issues and litigation that voided a previous plan adopted by council to explain why it took so long to be updated.
Click Here: CONVERSE CLASSIC CHUCK SHOES
“This is very unusual. It’s by far the oldest community plan by many years,” he said.
Mehendale also said the proposed plan would establish a review process for the rehabilitation of eligible historic resources.
Fran Offenhauser, a founder of Hollywood Heritage, said many people are upset that the city would bring forward a plan that creates a conflict between the “most important historic buildings” and affordable housing.
“By taking the geographic area of central Hollywood, where all of these historic buildings and neighborhoods are clustered, and then deciding that was the place to put their incentive program to effectively tear things down and build new apartments, low income apartments, is unnecessary,” Offenhauser said. “It was an outright mistake.”
Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky said the plan would reinvigorate the Hollywood community, including the areas in her district that comprise multi- family and single-family communities and commercial corridors in the Melrose arts district.
She encouraged her PLUM Committee colleagues to support the plan as well as several amendments introduced by Council Members Nithya Raman and Hugo Soto-Martínez, who represent parts of the Hollywood area, seeking tenant protections and extended affordable housing elements.
“I believe there doesn’t need to be a tension between housing density and housing affordability,” Soto-Martínez said. “If we adopt the plan that mandates the correct percentages of included affordable housing and all- for-profit project, we can benefit in the production of high density projects that work for everyone.”
City News Service contributed to this report.
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.
0 thoughts on “Proposed Hollywood Plan Calls For Adding 35,000 Housing Units”