West Hollywood : Council Reaffirms Project

Opponents of a large office and shopping center planned for 8580 Sunset Blvd. failed to stop it after West Hollywood officials acknowledged this week that they had neglected to change the city’s General Plan to accommodate the project.

The City Council stood behind the project, voting 4 to 1 to amend the General Plan to allow Raleigh Enterprises to exceed normal height restrictions at the planned 125,000-square-foot development, which the council approved in March.

Zoning laws must be consistent with the General Plan, the city’s long-term land-use blueprint. But planning officials acknowledged Monday that a change regulating tall buildings was inadvertently left out of a package of General Plan amendments adopted in January to make it fit a zoning law passed last year.

An attorney for Residents Organized Against Raleigh said the error backed the group’s claim that the project was improperly approved and he urged the council to eliminate the height bonus and other concessions. ROAR has filed a lawsuit contending also that city reviews of the project did not adequately take into account its effects on views, pollution and traffic.

Councilwoman Abbe Land said the oversight was a technicality.