Redevelopment Proposal Advances

A significant piece of the long-delayed Hollywood redevelopment project won approval Thursday from the Los Angeles Planning Commission, marking one of the few forward movements since the project began nearly a decade ago.

In sending the Hollywood Boulevard District Urban Design Plan to the Community Redevelopment Agency’s board for final approval, the Planning Commission added some recommendations for yet more changes. Still, the planning board’s approval of the first, largest and possibly most important of the redevelopment plan’s several components was seen as a signal that the project may get moving again at last.

For the last seven years, the $922-million project has been stalled repeatedly by disputes, including two lawsuits, between the CRA and various community groups.

Planners’ suggestions included making portions of the plan to upgrade Hollywood Boulevard more specific. Critics have complained that the CRA’s version was too general to be attractive to potential developers.

“In essence, there is no plan,” said Robert Nudelman, a community activist and longtime critic of the redevelopment effort. “Each developer has to go through hoops for the CRA.”

Critics also said the agency has dragged its feet on presenting the plan.

“By late 1990, work on the plan was 95% complete,” said city planner Michael Davies, who wrote a department report on the status of Hollywood redevelopment in 1986 and who has remained familiar with the process. The plan submitted for Planning Commission approval Thursday was “substantially the one” drafted years ago, Davies said.

CRA officials said extensive public comment generated by previous drafts led to the delay in getting the proposal to the commission. Don Spivack, the CRA’s director of operations, said the latest plan differs greatly from earlier versions.