Woo Seeks to Improve Traffic by Reducing Projects in Hollywood

Los Angeles Councilman Michael Woo ordered the city’s Planning Department on Thursday to draft a plan that would “dramatically reduce” the size of new buildings within Hollywood’s redevelopment area in an effort to alleviate vexing traffic problems in the community.

Woo said the plan, which he wants completed in two weeks, should directly tie the density of new projects in the 1,100-acre redevelopment area to the capacity of local streets.

“I am trying to link development with traffic improvements so that the revival of Hollywood doesn’t cause additional problems in terms of worsening traffic,” Woo told a small gathering of local residents in his Hollywood Boulevard field office. “If our streets and roads cannot handle the traffic, then the density of development needs to be drastically curtailed.”

Woo offered few specific ideas about what he expects the plan to include, but he said that it probably will involve developing incentives for builders to pay for traffic improvements--such as bus lanes and synchronized traffic signals--by linking the allowable size of their projects to such improvements. He said the plan would institutionalize an informal give-and-take that now takes place between the city and developers on such traffic improvements.

“I will support whatever it takes to control traffic and over-development in the Hollywood area,” Woo said. “In some cases, that may result in a 10% reduction in density, in other cases it might require a greater reduction beyond what is currently allowed in the redevelopment plan.”

Woo’s action drew a swift denouncement from the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, which accused the councilman of forcing the local business community to bear the brunt of regional traffic problems. Bill Welsh, president of the chamber, said Woo’s plan will “put up red flags” for developers thinking about investing in the movie capital’s decaying downtown.

“Once again, it is only the business community that is being asked to sacrifice, and it is a big sacrifice,” Welsh said.

Welsh said he and about 20 developers and business leaders met with Woo on Wednesday night in an unsuccessful attempt to persuade the councilman to hold off on his proposal. He said two developers contacted the chamber Thursday, saying word of Woo’s plan had given them second thoughts about building in Hollywood.

“If he wants more contributions to traffic improvements, then let’s work on that,” Welsh said. “But lets work together on this.”

But several Hollywood homeowners who were on hand in Woo’s office for his announcement praised the councilman’s action. Christine O’Brien, president of the Hollywoodland Homeowners Assn., said it is the only answer to crowded streets.

“We would like to encourage this,” she said. “We can try and hope.”

Cooke Sunoo, project manager for the Hollywood redevelopment area, said Woo’s plan should assist the redevelopment effort by building traffic improvements into the approval process.

“It calls for reducing densities, but the more important fact that we see, and understand his thinking to be, is that any development ought to mitigate any traffic situation that it causes. Traffic is probably the most critical element of what he is driving at right now.”

Marshall Caskey, an attorney who represents several potential developers in the redevelopment area and a writer of the redevelopment plan, also said tying densities and traffic is a smart idea.

“The sophisticated developers in 1988 know that more is being asked of developers,” he said. “That is a fact, and I think it is Mike’s intention to give the city the ability to direct development in a sensible way. I don’t think the sky is falling.”