Less than one week after attorneys representing the W Hotel filed a lawsuit against the Millennium Hollywood project, an attorney representing a coalition of neighborhood groups has followed suit.

Last week, Robert P. Silverstein filed the lawsuit against the city and Millennium Hollywood LLC, accusing both entities of corruption, endangering human lives, collusion and California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) violations.

Like the W Hotel attorneys, Silverstein also challenged the project’s environmental impact report (EIR) and expressed severe concern over the allegation that the project site sits on top of the active Hollywood Fault.

“You would think that the city council would hesitate for a moment,” he said of the council’s project approval amidst seismic concerns. “Instead, the fix is in. It’s a rigged game, and the city council shows that their attitude is damn the facts, damn the law, damn the state of California, damn forty community groups in Hollywood and L.A. that are protesting this and damn the threats to human life by the city council’s actions — and full speed ahead with approval of the project.”

The lawsuit states that the developer’s geologist, the Los Angeles Department of City Planning and the city’s Department of Building and Safety hid the fact that an active earthquake fault may sit on the site of the proposed 35- and 39-story towers. It cited several academic studies that contradict the developers’ EIR.

“They’ve shown — and they have never refuted — that the maps were falsified, [and they have] suppressed critical information such as the state of California’s 2010 active fault map, which shows the Hollywood fault running through this property, and distorted unfavorable data that they found in their own tests,” Silverstein said. “And the Department of Building and Safety was, at best, asleep at the switch and, at worst, complicit in this fraud.”

The lawsuit notes the California Department of Transportation’s (Caltrans) objection to the city’s failure to study the project’s impacts on the Hollywood (101) Freeway, which was required under CEQA. It states that as early as May 18, 2011, the department expressed concerns about the project’s impact on state facilities, but the city failed to comply with Caltrans’ requests to have the issues addressed in the EIR.

“It’s a black and white violation of CEQA. Just on that basis alone, the entire thing should be overturned,” Silverstein said, adding that CEQA states that agencies have the ability to direct what shall be included in an EIR.

Furthermore, the legal action criticizes the city and developers for having no “stable, accurate and finite” project description; submitting documents with false information; committing due process violations; conducting inadequate seismic studies; ignoring state agencies; refusing to extend the public comment period; and participating in “legalized bribery,” as the developers have made several campaign contributions to city officials and spent more than $4 million in lobbying payments.

Lastly, the lawsuit states that the development agreement added to the project is voluntary and unenforceable, and that the Board for Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors and Geologists is investigating the developers’ geologists. The board could not confirm the investigation before deadline.

In a statement, Philip Aarons, of Millennium Partners, called the lawsuit “regrettable.” He said the mixed-use, transit-oriented development was thoroughly reviewed and designed to minimize impacts on the surrounding area.

“We believe that the public benefits and jobs resulting from Millennium Hollywood are substantial, as do the decision-makers of the city of Los Angeles who have called our plan ‘a game changer’ for Hollywood,” Aarons said. “Millennium Hollywood has always been first and foremost a preservation project, earning the support of the Los Angeles Conservancy. It has been designed with the utmost safety in mind. It will be built in strict accordance with the local, state and federal laws mandating such, including any additional geotechnical investigations that may be warranted.”

He said the city’s Department of Building and Safety has confirmed that the developers have “gone above and beyond” the requirements for most development projects in Los Angeles to conduct seismic studies to demonstrate the safety of the site.

“The allegations by Mr. Silverstein to the contrary are specious,” Aarons said. “We have complete confidence that the Los Angeles Superior Court system will uphold the city’s approval of Millennium Hollywood, and we look forward to the commencement of construction.”

Like the W Hotel lawsuit, Silverstein’s lawsuit came as no surprise, Councilman Mitch O’Farrell, 13th District, said. In a previous interview, he said he believes in the approval process, and is eagerly awaiting the results of the new seismic studies.

“All of us have said no one wants to build a structure on top of a fault line,” O’Farrell said. “That’s not going to happen.”

Silverstein, however, said O’Farrell’s claim that the councilman has confidence in city staff and the integrity of the approval process so far is “a joke.” He likened the situation to a fox guarding a hen house. O’Farrell said Silverstein’s comments might make good sounds bites, but they’re not rooted in reality.

“I stand by the professionals that I’ve known for many, many years,” O’Farrell said, again stressing that Los Angeles has “the strictest building codes anywhere.”

The developers are planning to build a trench to further test the property for additional seismic concerns. However, Silverstein said the opponents would prefer a neutral and unbiased expert, such as the California state geologist, who submitted concerns about the project to the city council prior to its vote.

Silverstein said he is confident in the opponents’ ability to have the project stopped. He said he has been specializing in “this kind of fight” for 17 years, and that he has never seen a worse project than Millennium Hollywood.

“I think our lawsuit is rock solid,” he said.

The legal action was filed on behalf of StopTheMillenniumHollywood.com, Communities United for Reasonable Development, the Beachwood Canyon Neighborhood Association and George Abrahams, president of the Argyle Civic Association and director of the Beachwood Canyon Neighborhood Association.