West Hollywood Development Plan Tentatively OKd
Meet West Hollywood’s new version of the Sunset Strip: entertainment companies flock to sleek office buildings as shoppers lay down cash in pricey boutiques and elegant hotels.
West Hollywood city leaders have big hopes for their signature street--and now they have a plan.
On Monday, the City Council adopted an ambitious development blueprint aimed at creating a hub for the entertainment industry and attracting larger numbers of visitors to the spirited thoroughfare, an economic engine in the city of 36,000.
Architects of the Sunset Specific Plan want to attract developers with special incentives that would allow construction of denser and higher buildings than existing city codes allow. In exchange, the developers would set aside parts of their property for plazas and courtyards with views of the Los Angeles Basin.
West Hollywood officials hope to lure film companies, production outfits and other entertainment businesses to the office complexes, a tantalizing prospect on a boulevard that in recent years has seen the departure of some of its high-profile tenants, including Playboy Enterprises.
“We’re on the cusp of a new renaissance on the boulevard,” said Councilman Steve Martin.
West Hollywood business leaders applauded the 254-page plan, which received initial approval Monday and gets a final reading in two weeks. The plan took more than five years to complete.
“Anybody who takes a good look at the plan will be motivated to look at the city of West Hollywood,” said Dennis Holt, founder of Western International Media, a Sunset Strip business and the city’s largest employer.
Holt nearly moved his company and its 600 employees to Beverly Hills three years ago but said he decided to stay after learning about the Sunset Boulevard make-over. His company--which places advertising on billboards, television and radio--has expanded into its next-door neighbor, the 10-story Playboy building.
Other Sunset Strip business leaders, while praising the plan, are taking a wait-and-see approach. Some question whether developers will be lured by the height and density incentives, suggesting privately that the city may need to offer further zoning inducements.
“Strip people are all holding their breath to see if it’s going to work,” said Charlie Mercer, president of the Sunset Strip Assn.
“There is no guarantee,” Mercer said. “The welcome mat is out. It’s up to the entertainment industry.”
The development blueprint comes at a time when the Sunset Strip is showing signs of a modest boom. During the last two years, several hotels and office buildings have embarked on major renovations, and highly successful businesses such as the House of Blues and Thunder Roadhouse restaurant have opened.
The new arrivals have added to the economic muscle of the Strip, where businesses generate more than three-fourths of the city’s hotel tax income and a quarter of its sales taxes.
City leaders call the 1.2-mile Strip an eclectic playground where residents and tourists spend their money--eating in its chic restaurants, attending live theater shows, shopping in expensive stores and going to nightclubs.
Officials say the new plan will help draw even greater numbers of pedestrians by creating a more relaxed atmosphere. Among other things, the plan calls for widened sidewalks, landscaped courtyards, additional storefronts and shelter-like coverings to escape the sun.
“This is a place where we want people to walk around and feel comfortable,” said Sarah Lejeune, the plan’s project manager.
But those who live in the neighborhoods around the Strip worry that the anticipated influx of sight-seers and shoppers will worsen existing traffic problems.
Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Feuer has expressed concern about emergency vehicles being blocked from neighborhoods in the hills north of the Strip. Feuer’s office plans to review development projects on the boulevard as they go before West Hollywood officials for approval.
West Hollywood officials acknowledge that the new development will create additional traffic but say they are taking steps to ward off further problems. Mayor John Heilman and other council members also said the new plan limits overall development on the Strip, allowing a maximum of 1.2 million square feet of construction, or about two-thirds of what would be permitted under the city’s general plan.
“Even without this plan, there will be increases in traffic on Sunset,” Heilman said. “We’re trying to manage [growth] in a way that gives people reasonable access to their homes and businesses.”
