Update: Judge won’t allow Hollywood skyscrapers

Updated May 1, 2015:

An L.A. judge has delivered a major victory to community activists – ruling that plans for a pair of Hollywood towers must be scrapped because the city didn’t fully take into account how the development would affect surrounding communities.

The decision is a major victory for community activists, and a blow to developers of the Millennium Hollywood Project. Still, they are planning to push ahead – saying the project “is certainly not dead.”

April 30, 2015:

A hearing is scheduled today in a civil lawsuit that aims to halt a developer’s plans to build a pair of high-rise apartment buildings in Hollywood.

Lawyer and activist Robert Silverstein says the city improperly approved the project when it failed to disclose how close the buildings would be to an earthquake fault line that runs through the area. He’s representing the views of many Hollywood residents who say the project is out of step with the character of the neighborhood, would worsen traffic and is dangerous to boot.

Developers of the Millennium Hollywood project want to put up 39- and- 35-story towers with one million-square-feet of apartments, hotel rooms, restaurants and offices near the intersection of Vine Street and Hollywood Boulevard.

State geologists issued a new map last year that showed the Hollywood fault right under the building site. That fault is capable of producing a quake of stronger than magnitude 7.0. But the developer disputes the accuracy of that map – and says it will conduct further testing to establish the exact location of the fault line.

Both the developer and the city building officials insist the project can be built safely. L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti served as a champion of the project when he was a member of the City Council. He says he’ll rely on experts to determine whether the city should permit the project.