Foes of Secession Begin to Emerge in Hollywood

In some parts of Hollywood, the seeds of secession aren’t growing. But like gardeners watchful of weeds, some local groups are working to yank those seeds before they get a chance to sprout.

In recent months, as many as four homeowner groups along the southern edge of the proposed city of Hollywood have petitioned the agency overseeing secession issues to keep them out of any new city.

“I don’t think we’re fertile ground for secession,” said Diana Plotkin, president of Beverly/Wilshire Homeowners Assn. “The fact is, people around here don’t want to leave the city of Los Angeles.”

Leaders in three other groups, the Melrose Neighborhood Assn., the Larchmont Village Neighborhood Assn. and the Hancock Park Neighborhood Assn., agreed.

They don’t want to be part of Hollywood either.

So, officials at the Local Agency Formation Commission, which reviews incorporation proposals and decides whether to present them to affected voters, have redrawn the proposed city’s southern boundary to exclude those four areas. But other homeowner and business groups in the core of Hollywood, such as the Ivar Hill Community Assn., seem more amenable to leaving Los Angeles.

For the moment, LAFCO staffers have set the proposed southern boundary at Melrose Avenue, rejecting proposals that originally set the boundary as far south as 3rd Street and as far west as San Vicente and La Cienega boulevards. Those early proposals included the Farmers Market, the Beverly Center and portions of the Fairfax district.

Currently, those landmarks aren’t inside the proposed city. Even without those major commercial centers, however, financial projections by LAFCO officials indicate that the proposed city would be economically viable.

The LAFCO board will set the boundaries when it meets June 6 to consider whether the Hollywood secession proposal should be placed on the November ballot.

There are other unresolved boundary issues connected to the secession of Hollywood.

For example, there is the question of whether the Hollywood sign would be in the new city.

But for the moment, the talk about Hollywood’s proposed boundaries has centered on the desire of some homeowner groups to remain in Los Angeles.

“We have little in common with Hollywood,” said Arturo Martinez, president of the Melrose Neighborhood Assn., which represents 6,000 homes in an area surrounding the busy thoroughfare of the same name.

“We have [the Los Angeles Police Department’s] Wilshire Division, not Hollywood Division,” he said. “Our issues are different than those in Hollywood. We’re more residential in nature.”

Adds Chickie Byrne, a board member of the Hancock Park Neighborhood Assn., which represents 1,200 area homes: “Hancock Park has never been a part of Hollywood, and it will never be part of Hollywood. It’s absolutely ridiculous.”

The neighborhoods, with many well-appointed homes ranging in value from $500,000 to more than $1 million, offer what residents said is a unique sense of community difficult to find in sprawling Los Angeles. What attracts many to that part of town is their location.

“We’re conveniently located to lots of places,” said attorney Vince Cox, president of the Larchmont Village Neighborhood Assn. “It’s close to Hollywood, Century City and downtown. We have a large business village district; we have lots of schools nearby.”

In those precincts, they said the thought of leaving the city of Los Angeles isn’t appealing.

“I’m very wary,” Martinez said. “I just don’t trust what’s going on.”

With recent City Charter reforms extending power to neighborhood councils, it makes sense that these neighborhood organizations can now wield influence over whether they want to be in the new Hollywood city.

It is something LAFCO officials haven’t encountered much during the spate of secession proposals now underway.

Only in Hollywood have homeowners spoken out about whether they want to be in the new city.

“There’s been no talk from boundaries [from homeowner organizations] in the San Fernando Valley or the harbor area,” said Larry Calemine, LAFCO’s executive director.

Little attention was paid to the fledgling secession campaign in and around Hollywood when Gene La Pietra, a nightclub owner and head of the Hollywood group pushing secession, and others began to seek signatures more than two years ago.

Support for the new city, organizers said, seemed strong, judging from the signatures gathered in the area.

“In fact, one small area south of Melrose had one of our highest concentrations of support,” La Pietra said.

Some homeowner association officials disagreed, saying La Pietra and other secession supporters never approached some of the groups that eventually wanted to opt out.

“It was just a power grab,” Martinez said.

Among those who signed up early to support the idea of a separate Hollywood municipality was Robert Mankiewicz, a semiretired management consultant and a member of the Melrose association.

“What could it hurt?” he remembered thinking as he signed a petition at Trader Joe’s.

Now, he regrets the decision.

“If I knew then what I know now,” he said, “I never would have signed that petition.

“The problem with this is,” he said, “people suddenly came into our area and announced that ‘This is ours.’ They never talked to us.”

La Pietra rejected such comments, saying that secession leaders did meet with several groups. He added that they had no objection if a particular homeowners group wanted out of the proposed city.