Planners OK Hollywood Hotel but Neighbors Are Expected to Appeal

The massive $150-million Hollywood Center, featuring a hotel, office tower and partially remodeled Mann’s Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard, has been approved by the city’s subdivision committee.

Barring an appeal by protesting homeowner groups, no further city action is required on the proposed project, which would be located on the northwest corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue, according to Gary. A. Morris, associate city planner and committee chairman.

The committee is made up of representatives of the various city departments, including planning, transportation, fire, police and building and safety. Morris said the committee unanimously approved the project.

But he said the decision probably will be appealed by community groups concerned that the project is too big and will contribute to traffic problems in the area.

Morris said he expects to complete the paper work on the committee action by mid-September. Groups opposed to the decision then have 10 days to appeal the approval to the city Planning Commission. “Ultimately,” Morris said, “the decision could be appealed all the way to the City Council.”

Melvin Simon & Associates, the Indianapolis-based developer, has proposed a 400-room hotel, shops, restaurants, nightclubs, movie houses, an office building and museum and 4,200 parking spaces.

The original proposal called for a hotel of 25 stories and an office tower of 28. Under an agreement with the committee, neither the hotel nor the office tower will exceed 23 stories.

The developer also agreed to install a $3.7-million traffic synchronization program at intersections in Hollywood. George J. Mihlsten, the attorney representing Melvin Simon, said the traffic program would be the same one installed during the 1984 Olympics to ease congestion.

Additionally, the developer has agreed to finance the $1.1-million widening of the Highland-Franklin intersection and contribute $200,000 as its share of the cost of a Hollywood traffic study planned by the City Redevelopment Agency.

“We believe we did everything we could to lessen the impact the development will have on the community,” Morris said. “But that does not mean we have eliminated all impact on Hollywood streets. With more than 4,000 parking spaces, there is bound to be a lot of traffic into and out of the project.”

Mihlsten said the project, as modified, represents a “fair and feasible project, fully responsive to criticisms voiced by the many community groups with which we have been meeting.”

He characterized it as beneficial to Hollywood and a cornerstone of the 1,100-acre Hollywood Redevelopment Project.

Construction is scheduled to start next year and be completed in 1989, Mihlsten said.