Sunset Strip Plan Gets Support From Court

Opponents of a three-block-long hotel and retail-office project on the Sunset Strip have been dealt a setback in their attempt to block development they say will cause future gridlock along the famed tourist destination.

A state appeals court has ruled that West Hollywood officials did nothing wrong in approving the $300-million Sunset Millennium project or in taking a $5.2-million fee from its builder Mark Siffin.

Development foes--led by a former “77 Sunset Strip” TV series actress--blasted Tuesday’s court decision and vowed to take the case to the state Supreme Court.

“How could the court say it’s fine for a city to accept money from a developer to put up a project? If you have enough money, you can build anywhere,” said G.G. Verone, the actress whose group, Save Our Strip, sued to stop the project. “It’s graft, bribery.”

But lawyers for Siffin said there is little likelihood that Verone can pursue the case further.

“They can ask for permission to take it to the Supreme Court,” but 95% of such requests are denied, attorney James Arnone said Wednesday. “We feel this ruling fully and finally brings this to a close.”

Siffin said he hopes the dispute is now over. He dismissed any notion of graft or bribery.

The $5.2-million addition to the city’s coffers was negotiated after the West Hollywood planning commission approved the project and was done “in a straightforward, open-air process,” he said.

Work has already begun on the project, which would extend along the south side of Sunset Boulevard, from a half-block east of La Cienega Boulevard to a half-block west of Alta Loma Road, with a pedestrian bridge over La Cienega. It is to include a 371-room, 10-story hotel, 159,000 square feet of office space, 155,550 square feet of retail and restaurant space, and a two-auditorium live theater.

Verone lives a few feet outside the West Hollywood city limits on a Los Angeles hillside that overlooks the construction site. She and others contend that the completed project will worsen traffic on an already overloaded Sunset Boulevard.

In their lawsuit, the opponents asserted that environmental and traffic considerations were not adequately addressed by West Hollywood officials before the project approval was granted in late 1999.

They complained that the city’s decision to permanently block off a Sunset Strip side street, Alta Loma Road, was particularly harmful to local traffic flow.

But the 2nd Appellate District ruling, which upholds a January decision by a Superior Court judge, said city officials did nothing wrong. “The city has not closed to traffic a major street . . . . There is no evidence that placing a cul-de-sac on Alta Loma would interfere with emergency services or otherwise adversely affect the public health or safety,” the court decided.

As for the $5.2-million fee paid to the city, the appellate judges ruled that the opponents failed to prove that West Hollywood officials made decisions “not on planning considerations at all but in the pursuit of cash payoffs.” Concluded the court: “We will not assume the city’s approval of the project was motivated by the $5.2-million payment. . . .”

Verone said the fee payment issue is one that could have wide ramifications. “It’s an issue that is much more important than me or Mark Siffin. The issue is far more serious to cities through the state,” she said.

Verone said she is more determined than ever to oppose Sunset Millennium. She said delays in firefighters reaching a multimillion-dollar blaze two weeks ago at a Sunset Strip mini-mall adjacent to her home proved that the Strip is already dangerously overloaded with traffic.

“They couldn’t get fire trucks here,” and she almost lost her house, she said.