City planners are looking to drive future development toward transportation infrastructure through the Hollywood Community Plan, in hopes of weaning Angelenos from their addiction to the single-passenger car.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (left) and Council President Eric Garcetti, touted the plan as a guide to move Hollywood forward into the future. (photo by Aaron Blevins)

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, along with City Councilmembers Tom LaBonge, 4th District, and Eric Garcetti, 13th District, touted the plan on Monday from the rooftop of the Hollywood Tower, a residential building on Franklin Avenue.

The Los Angeles Planning Commission and the mayor recently approved the plan, which will now head to the City Council’s Planning and Land Use Management committee.

“L.A. has not updated enough of its community plans. So, we have planning by piecemeal,” Villaraigosa said. “We’ve attempted to accommodate and preserve the neighborhood character, while at the same time allow for development and density around transit-oriented districts.”

According to the plan analysis, officials are looking to accommodate for anticipated growth, reinforce neighborhood character, limit out-of-scale development, protect hillside areas and allow for development around transit infrastructure. Mixed-use development near Metro stations and transit corridors would offer mobility choices that could lessen gridlock and reduce pollution, according to the document. The plan would also alter limitations on commercial zones and multi-family residential zones that were imposed in 1988, the last time the plan was updated.

Villaraigosa said the anticipated growth is based on estimates by the Southern California Association of Governments, which predicts that Hollywood’s population will increase by 20,000 residents by 2030. Garcetti said the current plan would affect 150,000 residents.

“We’re growing,” Villaraigosa said. “As much as some people would love to see L.A. not grow, we’re going to grow, and we ought to plan for that growth. We ought to do it in a way that encourages the use of transit in a city that’s addicted to the single passenger automobile.

“You already see (development around public transportation) on Wilshire Boulevard, and you’re going to see more of it. The best way to get people out of their single passenger automobile is to create transit villages around transit stations. …If you talk to urban planners, anywhere around the world, they’ll tell you that’s what you have to do,” he added.

The plan is the result of 150 stakeholder meetings and at least two public hearings. Laurie Goldman, secretary of the Central Hollywood Neighborhood Council, said the council’s board worked for 18 months before determining that members supported the plan.

“Ninety percent of our recommendations were included in the plan that was approved,” Goldman said. “We believe this is not only good for the business community, but it addresses quality of life issues for the residents within our boundaries.”

Leron Gubler, president and chief executive officer of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, also spoke in favor of the community plan. He said the business community has been working diligently to “see Hollywood come back,” having created four business improvement districts in the last 18 years.

“It’s my understanding that this new community plan represents the first of a new generation of state-of-the-art plans for the city,” Gubler said. “It is going to guide development … and moves us in the right direction. Not only is it going to protect neighborhoods and direct development into the core areas of Hollywood, but it’s going to make Hollywood a much more livable, much more walk-able community.”

Though the plan has been “thoroughly vetted,” Villaraigosa said the land use committee and council will have an opportunity to further refine the details. He said residents seeking to include input will have future opportunities to do so. At least one protestor picketed outside the Hollywood Tower during the event.

“There’s no question that you’re going to have some people who like certain elements and [some who] don’t,” Garcetti said, adding that he believes the consensus of residents are in favor of the plan. “That doesn’t mean that there aren’t voices out there. That doesn’t mean Tom and I won’t listen to them. That doesn’t mean we won’t make changes.”

LaBonge said Angelenos should also be looking to make changes. If residents have busses and public transportation nearby, they should use it, he said.

“This is a transformation,” LaBonge said. “We have to individually make a choice.”

Jim O’Sullivan, president of the Miracle Mile Residential Association, fears that similar plans could eventually be put in place in the Miracle Mile. He said the city has five or six more community plans to update before targeting the area, but the association is looking to make its voice heard in advance.

“You start thinking, ‘We have to stop them now,’” O’Sullivan said.

He said the population increase of 20,000 in Hollywood will result in more greenhouse gas emissions, with no funding attached to the plan to mitigate the increase. According to the plan’s environmental impact report, negative affects from greenhouse gases have been reduced as much as possible, but “significant air quality impacts are unavoidable.”

The plan is based on faulty Census data anyway, O’Sullivan claimed. He said the 2010 Census shows that the Hollywood area has lost approximately 12,000 residents over the last decade. The updated plan also assumes that people will ride public transportation instead of taking their vehicles.

“I can’t do it on busses,” O’Sullivan said. “We don’t have a transportation system. This is their way of saying, ‘Build it, and they will come.’”

However, if the Hollywood area does manage to substantially increase its population, the city will not be able to provide police, fire and medical emergency services, he said. O’Sullivan said Hollywood already “cannibalizes” resources from other parts of the city.

“Someone else is going to have to suffer in order for Hollywood to have the resources,” he added.

O’Sullivan said that if the plan is approved, a lawsuit is likely to follow. He said other concerned parties would have attended Monday’s event, but didn’t feel that they would be able to speak because the event was held on private property.