Bad Reviews in North Hollywood

Mayor James K. Hahn unveiled a sculpture titled Phoenix Rising on Thursday, proclaiming it a welcoming gateway to the North Hollywood arts district, but some residents of the area say the work’s symbolic declaration of rebirth may be premature for a still-blighted community.

The sculpture is among $2.6 million in community improvements that have been made in the area, including landscaping of roadway medians and creation of a new dog park and a roller hockey rink.

The neighborhood is part of the 740-acre North Hollywood Redevelopment Project Area, which the city formed in 1979 to help replace blighted properties with new development.

But some North Hollywood civic leaders noted Thursday that a large residential and commercial development that city officials have billed as the cornerstone of efforts to revitalize the community has been delayed for years, and there is still no firm ground-breaking date.

The City Council voted four years ago to begin negotiations on the project with one firm but later switched to builder Jerry Snyder, who scaled back the proposal from a 30-acre development with a film studio and two 20-story office towers to a 16.7-acre project with no studio and smaller office buildings.

In December 2001, the council approved $31 million in loans and subsidies to the NoHo Commons project, saying construction would begin in January 2003. But the $192-million development has yet to break ground, and its builders say the start of construction may still be six months away.

Given those delays, the sculpture unveiled Thursday is “overly optimistic,” according to Glen Hoiby, chairman of the North Hollywood Concerned Citizens neighborhood group. “It’s trying to put a positive spin on the delays and the lack of progress,” he said.

Hahn said the $55,000 gateway monument, which depicts a phoenix in flight, is an important symbol of the ongoing rebirth of the area designated by the city as the North Hollywood Arts and Entertainment District.

“This wonderful gateway ... represents a transformation of this neighborhood,” Hahn said. “This is a neighborhood that maybe had some hard times, but it is coming back better and stronger than ever.”

North Hollywood activist Gary Hendrickson attended the event with a picket sign that said North Hollywood needs the city to spend its money on fixing Burbank Boulevard and providing more police and parking for the area, not on a “useless expensive sculpture.”

Councilman Tom LaBonge, who attended the sculpture dedication, said he still hopes construction on NoHo Commons can begin in September, and he blamed the economic downturn in part for the delays.

Snyder said he is still waiting for city building officials to approve construction planning documents for the project.

In addition, the Community Redevelopment Agency has only bought out and relocated about half of the approximately 50 businesses on the land needed for NoHo Commons, according to Lillian Burkenheim, the agency’s manager of the project.

Some civic leaders said the agency’s bureaucracy is partly responsible.

“The development was promised at least seven years ago. It’s frustrating,” said Victor N. Viereck, president of the North Hollywood Residents Assn.