May 01--A judge on Thursday halted a developer's plan to build two massive skyscrapers in the heart of Hollywood, ruling that the city of Los Angeles failed to fully assess how the $1-billion project would affect the surrounding community.
The Millennium Hollywood project has been strongly backed by city officials but opposed by community groups fearful of traffic congestion and the project's proximity to the Hollywood earthquake fault. The 39- and 35-story buildings were seen as a centerpiece in the ongoing revitalization of Hollywood.
In a 46-page decision, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge James C. Chalfant said Los Angeles disregarded the concerns of Caltrans that traffic on the 101 Freeway might significantly worsen with the development.
The ruling prevents the city from granting any building permits for the project based on the city's prior approvals and prevents Millennium from starting construction. The order directs the City Council to set aside actions approving the final environmental impact report that is necessary for the project to proceed.
The ruling also means that Millennium will have to go back to the drawing board if it wants to proceed with the project and draft a new environmental impact report, said Robert Silverstein, an attorney for the opponents. It could take more than a year to draft a new report.
Philip Aarons, a founding partner of New York-based Millennium Partners, pledged to continue the effort to build the project.
"The project is certainly not dead," Aarons said as he got into an SUV outside the Stanley Mosk Courthouse in downtown Los Angeles. "We're excited to keep it going. We're not discouraged by today's court hearing."
In a later statement, Aarons said he is considering options for addressing the issues cited by the court.
The judge cited concerns by Caltrans, which wanted a study of the 101 Freeway on-ramps and off-ramps near the project to address concerns about long lines of cars as a result of the development. The judge said the city's traffic study did not comply with what Caltrans wanted, "and the city was not free to ignore it."
The judge also cited Caltrans' concerns about safety, including long queues of cars on the off-ramps between Vermont and Highland avenues, where vehicles could back up into intersections.
"The city was not entitled to disagree with Caltrans," the judge said, and "perform a study more limited than sought by Caltrans."
The judge, however, sided with the city in how officials managed the seismic risk.
The judge did criticize a report prepared before the City Council approved the project in 2013 that failed to disclose that a California Geological Survey map published in 2010 showed the Hollywood fault to be within 500 feet of the project.
However, the judge said the city did adequately assess seismic issues by requiring detailed geological engineering studies to look for an earthquake fault prior to issuing permits allowing the city to proceed.
In the suit, lawyer Robert Silverstein accused the city and the developer's attorneys of knowing "that the Hollywood fault might cross the property -- -- yet this information was never ultimately disclosed or discussed" in the environmental impact report.
In November, the California Geological Survey issued a map showing the fault line running under the site of what would be the tallest and largest development in Hollywood history. The developer has called the map incorrect, and has said it would undertake testing requested by the city to investigate any seismic concerns.
The city of Los Angeles and the developer, Millennium Hollywood LLC, which defended the project's approval, said in earlier court documents that "the record demonstrates the city's scrupulous oversight of seismic risks" and that officials have "imposed strict requirements to avoid any risk that the project could be constructed on an active fault."
California law generally bans new buildings on an active earthquake fault because of the risk to public safety. Buildings straddling a fault can be torn apart as one side of the fault moves away from the other.
The city and developer also said two traffic studies concluded they thoroughly studied traffic and concluded that "impacts on the 101 Freeway would be less than significant."
Developers want to build the two skyscrapers as part of a project that would add 1 million square feet of housing, hotel rooms, offices, restaurants and stores, transforming land littered with parking and rental car lots into a new urban hub for Hollywood full of workers and shoppers in a project that could be worth as much as $1 billion.
The development has come under criticism for being too large and out of step with Hollywood's character and for how it might affect city views.
The project's critics are asking the judge to require a new review of the project in light of its proximity to the Hollywood fault.
Opponents of the project include the Beachwood Canyon Neighborhood Assn., which represents an area of the Hollywood Hills just north of the proposed Millennium site, and a group called Communities United for Reasonable Development.
Members of the City Council championed the project when it passed in 2013 on a 13-0 vote. City Councilman Mitch O'Farrell said on the day of the vote that the project would create jobs and new tax revenue for the city and draw new residents and tourists to Hollywood's eastern edge.
UPDATE
5:01 p.m.: This story was updated with a comment from Millennium.
12:47 p.m.: This story has been updated with the judge's ruling.
This article was first posted at 7:11 a.m.
