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• Posted by sara james October 15, 2022 Filed in Entertainment #nicole shanahan sergey brin  19 views
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  Even though the Hollywood Community Plan update was adopted by the City in 2012, there was a case brought on late during the CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act) appeal period of the Community Plan's EIR (Environmental Impact Report). This Superior Court case against the City of Los Angeles was brought on together by three (3) plaintiffs, who were all local community and preservation groups (Fix the City, La Mirada Avenue Neighborhood Association nicole shanahan sergey brin of Hollywood, and SaveHollywood.org). The plaintiffs' main reason for filing suit was that they believed that City Planners and City Council relied on inaccurate population data for Hollywood, which was in turn used as the basis for some of the areas that were "up-zoned" to allow increased height and density for new projects. They claimed that the City's EIR for this Hollywood Community Plan update showed a false population increase in the area due to previous revitalization.

  According to the plaintiffs, the City allegedly used outdated census data from the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG), which showed approximately 225,000 people in Hollywood. Using this figure, the City assumed a future population of 250,000 people by the year 2030, a projected increase of 25,000. The problem is that the US 2010 Census came out showing roughly 200,000 people, which was slightly less than the 225,000 people shown in the City's EIR. So, instead of an increase of 25,000 people by 2030, in reality, it really meant an increase of 50,000 people. Critics state that by using higher-than-actual population figures as the basis for the additional height and density allowed in the Community Plan, real estate developers can now build larger, higher and denser buildings based on the new zoning that was a result of accommodating this demand, in turn meaning that traffic will become worse, views of existing residents will be impacted and infrastructure will be inadequate. I'm not sure if I am buying into that logic as it would be worse if the City "underestimated" the population data, rather than using a higher, or in other words, a more conservative set of population data. One could argue that it is better to error on the side of a higher future population, because what if it actually happens? If would be better to have the flexibility and ability to build a sufficient amount of housing, office space and infrastructure as opposed to having our hands tied and not be able to accommodate a higher-than-projected surge in Hollywood residents if it were to occur. This author will not speculate on what happened during the compilation of census data in the EIR or why the discrepancy was not fixed by the City prior to releasing the Final EIR, but in not doing so, a chink was left in the armor for local NIMBY's and advocacy groups to penetrate in a Community Plan, that for the most part, from an urban planning prospective, made a lot of sense for the future of Hollywood as a whole.