Large complex in NoHo gets OK

Transportation officials on Thursday gave a green light to the largest “transit-oriented” development in L.A. County history, a $1.3-billion apartment, retail and high-rise office tower complex to be built at the terminus of the Red Line subway and Orange Line busway in North Hollywood.

The NoHo Art Wave, which will be built on mostly vacant land or parking lots, will eclipse even the Hollywood & Highland shopping complex and underscores the efforts of transit officials to turn the once-declining North Hollywood business district into a major transit hub.

The development will feature more than 1.7 million square feet of development on 15.6 acres, which would be the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s largest transit-oriented development.

The MTA has made a priority of developing land the agency owns at its rail and bus stations.

Officials believe that locating shopping and housing next to bus and rail lines will encourage people to get out of their cars and use mass transit. But some critics have questioned whether such projects actually result in fewer car trips.

Similar developments -- but on a smaller scale -- have been rising at MTA subway stations along Wilshire Boulevard and Hollywood Boulevard as well. The MTA is continuing to look at developing land at other Red Line and Orange Line stations, as well as on the Gold Line extension now being built to East Los Angeles.

The North Hollywood project and others, however, have received mixed reactions from residents, some of whom worry about rising density of the neighborhood.

Ron Bitzer, who lives northwest of the Red Line train station in North Hollywood, said that even though his community of single-family homes is not directly affected by development at the station, an influx of people and the addition of tall buildings will affect all of the community, not just the streets adjacent to the Red Line.

Bitzer said that there is so much development going on in North Hollywood -- including in his own neighborhood near Laurel Canyon and Victory boulevards -- that officials should do more to reach out to residents throughout the area.

“I would have liked to have seen a little more discussion about this massive project,” Bitzer said. “It doesn’t sit well with me that they toss around this term ‘smart growth’ and then suddenly approve a large development that will obviously change the character of that part of North Hollywood.”

More than 1 million square feet of office space will be built in three buildings between 12 and 20 stories tall. Other buildings on the drawing board will house nearly 160,000 square feet of retail and entertainment and about 560 apartment units. About 6,200 parking spaces will be built, with 1,500 reserved for MTA users, an increase from the current 1,000 spots.

Officials with the developer, Brentwood-based Lowe Enterprises, say they want to tap into North Hollywood’s arts and theater scene and provide space for groups to rehearse and perform, both outdoors and indoors. The company is also in talks to build a replacement for the YMCA located about five blocks away.

Senior Vice President Thomas Wulf said the project is being called the “NoHo Art Wave” because it’s being designed to be “a wave drawing pedestrians, office users and retail customers.”

“Our goal is to really build upon the resurgence that’s already taken place in North Hollywood, such as the resurgence of live theaters,” Wulf said.

Thursday’s action by the MTA board permits the agency’s staff to enter into negotiations with the developer, and it could take as long as a year to negotiate the terms, Wulf said.

The developer is using private investors to fund the $1.3-billion construction cost, Wulf said.

Roger Moliere, the MTA’s chief of real property management and development, said the MTA expects to retain ownership of the land and lease the property to the developer at $11 million per year.

Groundbreaking could begin in about two years, with various parts of the project being completed between 2010 and 2014, Wulf said. The L.A. Department of City Planning and Community Redevelopment Agency also will review the developer’s plans, Wulf said.

Transit-oriented developments have been embraced by city leaders as a way of dealing with traffic gridlock and providing needed new housing.

But the effectiveness of the projects in terms of getting people out of their cars remains in question.

Earlier this year, The Times examined driving habits at four apartment and condominium complexes at or near transit stations in South Pasadena, North Hollywood, Pasadena and Hollywood. Reporters spent two months interviewing residents, counting cars going out of and into the buildings and counting pedestrians walking from the projects to the nearby train stations.

The reporting indicated that only a small fraction of residents shunned their cars during morning rush hour. Most people said that even though they lived close to transit stations, the trains weren’t convenient enough, taking too long to arrive at destinations and lacking stops near workplaces.

The MTA’s Moliere believes the North Hollywood site makes sense for transit-oriented development because it sits at a key crossroads for both the subway and popular busway. (The MTA’s long-term plans -- if money is available -- call for eventually extending the Red Line north and building another transit line east into Burbank and Glendale.)

“It’s a perfect spot for development,” he said.

ron.lin@latimes.com

sharon.bernstein@latimes.com