City Council to Discuss Defeat of Their Fatally Flawed Hollywood Community Plan Update

City Attorney Mike Feuer has sent a letter to the City Council requesting a closed session meeting to discuss the challenges to the City Council's June 19, 2012, adoption of the Hollywood Community Plan Update (HCPU) and its environmental impact report.

Last month Judge Goodman agreed with the three challengers, La Mirada Neighborhood Association, Fix the City and Save Hollywood, that the Hollywood Community Plan Update was fatally flawed as a planning document. It failed to comply with CEQA, and CEQA Guidelines and was not consistent with the Charter of the City of Los Angeles, the General Plan Framework Element and other applicable laws.

The HCPU failed on three principle issues: lack of an accurate population baseline upon which to make projections, lack of an adequate infrastructure to support an increase in population and a lack of consideration of a reasonable range of alternatives including the downzoning option. The court concluded that the petitioners were right on all accounts.

The court was profoundly critical of the HCPU. Phrases which stood out were:

"fundamentally flawed, and fatally so"
"the HCPU, and its accompanying EIR, contain errors of fact and of law that compel granting relief"
"failure to proceed in the manner required by law"
"prejudicial abuse of discretion"
"failure to include relevant information"
"meaningful public review was thwarted by City's pyrrhic rush to final approvals"
"HCPU was unsupported by anything other than wishful thinking"

In the face of this severe reprimand the City should finally recognize that their defeat was total. The City has an option -- keep fighting in an attempt to impose their flawed vision of massive over-development or move forward to developing a community plan that properly serves the interests of the residents of Hollywood.

Let's attend the 10 a.m. Tuesday City Council meeting and show them that we want an end to this pointless fighting.

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