L.A. Won’t Sue Over Sunset Strip Project

The Los Angeles City Council sheepishly backed away from a threatened lawsuit against West Hollywood on Wednesday, agreeing instead to a series of traffic improvements around that city’s first large new development on the Sunset Strip.

Rather than engender ill feeling with their neighbor, Los Angeles lawmakers said they would accept $485,000 in improvements pledged by the developer and other assurances from West Hollywood city officials.

The $250-million Sunset Millennium project is expected to be a huge moneymaker for West Hollywood, but it has some Los Angeles hillside residents, and their councilman, Mike Feuer, fuming.

They say that the traffic on Sunset will become even worse and that nothing short of scaling back the development will help. One resident, G.G. Verone, a former actress and longtime hillside resident, said Wednesday that she and her neighbors are prisoners of West Hollywood because of the congestion on Sunset.

West Hollywood City Council members said that meeting with other council offices to discuss the crisis could lead to a more collegial relationship with Los Angeles--particularly now that the city no longer is threatening a lawsuit.

“Had Mike [Feuer] not been so hard-assed, we wouldn’t have had the opportunity to work with the different council offices,” said West Hollywood Councilman Steve Martin. “I think we’ve built up a better relationship.”

Los Angeles Councilwoman Ruth Galanter cautioned her colleagues about suing a neighbor and the long-lasting effects such legal action can have. The city sued Culver City over a large commercial development years ago, and only recently have representatives of the two municipalities resumed speaking to each other.

“It’s taken a number of years to get to a relative detente,” Galanter said, adding that the city should consider “intergovernmental relations” with its civic neighbors.

Other council members agreed, saying that the city should declare victory because the developer, Mark Siffin, has agreed to fund several traffic improvements that probably will benefit the city.

“There may have been some valid reasons to sue . . . to bring West Hollywood to the table,” said Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, who voted against the lawsuit. “I believe West Hollywood is now at the table. . . . I think this is the beginning of a collaboration and the way we should be doing planning.”

Siffin was pleased by the council’s actions, saying he will pay $485,000 or more for such improvements as a computerized traffic light system on Sunset and special technology allowing police and fire vehicles to change traffic lights. West Hollywood has agreed to initiate an anti-cruising law on Sunset and to work cooperatively with the city on other traffic-related issues.

Feuer, along with his vocal hillside constituents, said those proposals haven’t been tested or reviewed by the appropriate city departments. The residents say they simply do not go far enough.

“I think the city of Los Angeles showed very poor judgment today,” Verone said. “This has to do with saving peoples’ lives, saving the Sunset Strip, and we should be protecting the citizens of Los Angeles.”

Feuer tried to win approval to file a lawsuit against West Hollywood but not actually serve it until city experts review the developer’s proposals. That effort failed.

Some of his constituents, however, have filed a suit against West Hollywood demanding further environmental review of the project, and shouted to council members after the vote: “See you in court.”