Suit Seeks to Block Twin Towers at Pershing Square

Los Angeles’ largest historical preservation group sued the city Monday, charging that officials illegally skirted size limitations on downtown structures when they approved a proposed hotel and office complex near Pershing Square.

In its suit, the 2,600-member Los Angeles Conservancy, which works to save historic buildings, claimed that the Community Redevelopment Agency unlawfully “sold” to the developer of a $300-million project permission to build a complex twice the size of what would normally be permitted at the site.

The twin-skyscraper complex would take up much of the block north of Pershing Square, the city’s oldest dedicated park, and include 35- and 45-story towers that would house a 550-room hotel and 700,000 square feet of office space.

City officials have claimed that the park itself, like all property, is invested with certain development rights and they justified the increased size of the proposed project, in part, by assigning some of those rights to the property across the street.

In return for the increased density, the developer, Pershing Square Centre Associates, has agreed to pay $11 million into a CRA fund intended to acquire additional downtown park space.

The conservancy claims that as a public park, the square has no development rights and the arrangement is simply a gimmick to boost the size of the project. Conservancy officials also said the development expands Bunker Hill-type office-residence high-rises eastward into a district of historic 13-story structures. The project would take new high-rise construction for the first time east of Olive Street between 4th and 5th streets.

“As new construction begins to move eastward we could either complement and enrich our historic street-scapes or we could destroy them,” said Ruth Ann Leherer, executive director of the conservancy. She said the big, twin-tower project would “overwhelm” both Pershing Square and the smaller older buildings nearby.

Jim Wood, chairman of the CRA commission, said, “I don’t think the suit is justified or has any merit.” The agency legally granted a “variation” in the building restrictions, Wood said, in return for a number of significant public benefits, including the park fee and the developer’s agreement to restore the historic Title Guarantee building, a 1920s-era Art Deco structure at 5th and Hill streets. Agency officials and David Houk, president of the firm developing the project, insist that the project has been designed to respect the historical structures in the area.

But they also note that the complex is at a proposed Metro Rail subway station. Large building construction encourages ridership if located at or near transit stations, planning officials maintain.

The lawsuit is the conservancy’s first major challenge of a downtown development decision by the city. Dan Garcia, chairman of the city Planning Commission, which also approved the project and was named in the suit, said the conservancy apparently is “trying to become an important factor in approving downtown development.” He said he “frowns” on outside groups trying to “usurp the legislative powers” of government.

Garcia said many of the group’s complaints have centered on the design of the project, which he said “is not a very valid basis” for a legal challenge.

The Center for Law in the Public Interest, which filed the suit for the preservation group, recently won a landmark legal battle with the city that will require the rezoning of about 200,000 parcels citywide to bring them into conformity with the city’s general plan, which places restrictions on construction.

Carlyle W. Hall Jr., the attorney in both cases, said the suit challenging the Pershing Square project also could affect how the redevelopment agency approves increased density for other large projects in the future. “There ought to be guidelines for any of these density transfers,” he said, claiming that they are subject to tremendous abuse.

Garcia said the redevelopment agency and the city Planning Department already are considering implementing new controls on transferring the right to build from one property location to another.

The conservancy suit, on which no hearing date has been set, seeks a court order setting aside the approval of the Pershing Square project.