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Bus Firm’s Use of Parking Lot Miffs Neighbors : Tourism: Efforts to boost tourism industry in Hollywood pits economic interests against neighbors complaining about bus noise and pollution.

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

In a move to bring more tourists to Hollywood, Los Angeles City Councilman Michael Woo has allowed Starline Sightseeing Tours to use a parking lot near Hollywood Boulevard as a bus station since July. But city inspectors say the company does not have a permit to run the North Whitley Avenue station, and regional air quality officials, responding to neighborhood complaints, allege that the operation is a public nuisance.

Senior city inspector Mark Morrow said in an interview that the Department of Building and Safety will ask the city attorney’s office this week to file criminal misdemeanor charges against Starline. Morrow said the company, despite repeated notices and a deadline extension, has not obtained a permit, which he said is required to run the station. If convicted, Morrow said Starline will be forced to close the bus station.

“The permitted use right now for that property is auto parking,” Morrow said. “They need a permit to change the use to a bus station. . . . We are alleging that they are operating in violation of the Los Angeles Municipal Code.”

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Starline owner Vahid Sapir would not comment on the allegations last week. Ernie Gallipo, a transportation consultant hired by Starline, declined to answer questions about the bus station but denied that it is operating illegally.

“The property they are running on right now is legally adapted to their type of program,” Gallipo said.

Woo said last week that he was unaware that Starline was operating without a change-of-use permit or that idling buses at the station had been declared a public nuisance by air quality officials. The agreement Woo reached with Starline in August outlined specific restrictions on bus operations, including one allowing the buses to idle their engines for no more than 15 minutes, he said.

“What we tried to do was work out a compromise that would restrict the buses but still allow them to do business,” Woo said. “The tourism industry is an important part of the Hollywood economy.”

The bus station serves as a clearinghouse for Starline’s tours throughout the Los Angeles area. Starline officials would not provide information about ridership from the Hollywood station. In February, when Starline bought the Los Angeles, Orange County and Santa Barbara operations of Gray Line Tours, Sapir said the combined companies had a fleet of about 150 buses carrying 2.5 million passengers a year.

The 10,000-square-foot parking-lot-turned-bus-station had been used by motorists shopping along Hollywood Boulevard, city officials said. The property still looks like a parking lot, except it is now posted with signs for various tourist destinations, such as Universal Studios and Disneyland, and is crowded several times a day with a dozen or so buses and vans. Riders purchase tour tickets at a nearby shopping center.

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Steve Andrews, who oversees transportation issues in Hollywood for the Community Redevelopment Agency, said the agency helped Woo’s office craft the conditions placed on the Starline station. Although the CRA has no authority over the station, it lies within the 1.7-square-mile Hollywood redevelopment project governed by the agency.

Under the agreement, the city removed several parking meters on Hollywood Boulevard outside the Janes House--a Victorian home adjacent to the Whitley Avenue lot that houses a visitors and convention bureau--and replaced them with a bus unloading zone.

In turn, Starline agreed to various parking and route restrictions (the buses cannot “orbit” in residential neighborhoods, for example) and also pledged to give its passengers literature on Hollywood attractions and to consider advertising Hollywood businesses in its buses.

“If a tour bus comes in at 8:20 and the Anaheim bus doesn’t leave until 9:30, those people are walking around and hopefully spending their money in Hollywood,” said Andrews. “One of the economic development strategies in Hollywood is to reinforce Hollywood as a legitimate stop on the Southern California tour.”

But the new bus station has angered residents and some workers along the 1700 block of Whitley, which is just around the corner from the Janes House. Employees at Interview magazine and Limelight Production Co., who work out of a two-story building next to the bus station, said they have been forced to close their windows because of fumes from idling buses. Several said Starline has occasionally posted “No Parking” signs on a fence outside their building to reserve metered spaces for buses.

“Thirteen buses will be lined up here at busy times,” said Gore Verbinski, who works at Limelight. “We all get headaches.”

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DeHaven Collins, whose apartment is in the same building as the magazine and production company, said she has clocked some buses idling their engines for more than five hours. She said the bus station should be moved to an industrial or commercial area.

“This is residential here,” she said. “There are plenty of parking lots that are away from people’s homes.”

Woo, however, defended the parking lot as an ideal location for a tour bus station because of its proximity to the Janes House. Passengers enter Starline buses from a small shopping center in front of the historic home.

“It is unreasonable to expect all of the tour buses to disappear from Hollywood Boulevard,” Woo said. “It is reasonable to prevent them from circulating in residential neighborhoods. Here we have the problem of a residential area directly adjacent to an area known for tourism uses. I am trying to enable both sides of the controversy to live and let live.”

Shortly after the bus station opened in July, Barbara Bass, who lives in an apartment building across the street from the station, collected 40 signatures from her neighbors opposed to the station and sent them to Woo. She also complained to the South Coast Air Quality Management District about exhaust fumes from the idling buses. AQMD inspectors began monitoring the station in late July, and on Aug. 17 cited Starline as a public nuisance.

AQMD officials said last week that the case has been referred to the agency’s investigation unit for possible criminal prosecution. Public nuisance convictions can carry a maximum $25,000 fine per day.

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AQMD officials, however, said that there have been fewer complaints about the buses in the last few weeks and that Starline “has been very cooperative recently.” AQMD spokesman David Rutherford said the bus company had installed air conditioners in an adjacent building because of complaints about exhaust fumes, but some residents and workers along Whitley said they knew nothing about air conditioners.

“I sure could have used one on some of those hot summer days,” Collins said.

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