SAVE HOLLYWOOD - VISION 2021
JOIN THE MOVEMENT TO SAVE HOLLYWOOD!
SUPPORT VISION HOLLYWOOD 2021!
Hollywood Heritage has developed its VISION HOLLYWOOD 2021, laying out principles and positions on how the Hollywood Community Plan Update can be amended to make it truly fulfill its multiple goals. This vision seeks to stop the demolition of historic Hollywood, stop the destruction of historic affordable housing, stop the displacement of Hollywood’s communities, and instead focus equal talent, legislation, and incentives on optimizing the artistic, beloved, and significant buildings which are the soul of our community.
Through our work we know that Hollywood’s housing goals can be achieved without demolishing a single historic building. We also know that proposed significant upzoning in the Hollywood Boulevard National Register Historic district can and will negate all of the incentives which are known to work for historic preservation-- such as the Transfer of Development Rights, Federal and State Tax Credits, Adaptive Re-Use legislation etc.
We need your help to tell our leaders to fix this plan!
Among the items we ask for are;
(1) Ensure that proposed zoning in the Community Plan Update and the CPIO (Community Plan Implementation Overlay) truly analyze, recognize and integrate the monumental contribution of heritage to Hollywood, and successfully avoid creating incentives for demolition of historic buildings.
(2) Adopt the full list of professionally identified historic resources effective throughout the Community Plan Area.
(3)Ensure that the long-standing protections for historic buildings and districts in the Redevelopment Plan area will be implemented, NOT repealed as proposed.
(4) Guarantee that Hollywood’s significant buildings already designated as National Register, California Register, CRA- identified—be treated equally with reviews, incentives and procedures afforded City Historic Cultural Monuments and Historic Preservation Overlay Zones. Provide protections and review processes for Survey-LA identified buildings throughout the Community Plan area.
(5) Ensure that new and additional information regarding the Hollywood Blvd National Register District’s architecturally and culturally significant buildings be formally recognized and incorporated into Land Use Planning and zoning.
Hollywood can and will change, welcoming and housing those in pursuit of a new life, a new career, or a new dream, but it also needs to and can preserve the history, the architecture, the communities and the attributes that make Hollywood home already for 200.000 people and a draw for people from around the world. Hollywood Heritage believes its VISION HOLLYWOOD 2021 will ensure this, melding affirmative planning and productively keeping and celebrating historic Hollywood’s buildings and districts into the future.
SIGN THE PETITION! I support Hollywood Heritage’s VISION HOLLYWOOD 2021!
THE TIME TO ACT IS NOW!
If we do not speak up, the new proposed development plan for Hollywood will result in detrimental consequences for the Historic District and the community surrounding it. This is a challenge not simply about preservation and old buildings. It is also a challenge about the true nature of affordable housing in the district and how it is used to push through new development and construction.
In the coming days we will add more detail about the core issues surrounding this plan, but believe us when we say that the heart of Hollywood is in danger. People from all over the world come to Hollywood for its unique character and deep history in the development of Los Angeles. Paving over that heritage to add glass buildings and chain stores takes the future in the wrong direction.
Did you know that currently there are an estimated 93,000 rental units sitting vacant in Los Angeles, with nearly half of which are withheld from the housing market.
While the City’s zoning code is certainly outdated, this is not the reason for the current housing crisis that we’re facing. According to The Vacancy Report (UCLA/SAJE, 2020), vacancy rates in Downtown, Koreatown, Hollywood and Venice are high, and yet the City continues to approve new high-priced units in these neighborhoods.
Here’s an excerpt from the report:
“High vacancy rates in expensive luxury housing developments are a core symptom of a broader speculative housing system that is failing to benefit our communities.
Speculative practices yield an unbalanced production of vacant luxury development at a time when evictions are fueling a loss of affordable rental units, increasing numbers of corporate landlords are unaccountable to low-income tenants, and we are failing to build enough covenanted, deeply affordable housing.
All of this accelerates our houselessness crisis.”
The report states that LA already has enough vacant units for our sizable population of
unhoused citizens:
”Over 46,000 units are held in a state of non-market vacancy—more than one for every unhoused person in Los Angeles. Many thousands of more units are withheld from the housing system by landlords listing them at high rents that keep them vacant long-term. This is a real issue with significant implications for addressing the housing crisis.
Many of these units are kept vacant by owners seeking to profit by speculating on the increase in property value, returning properties to the market only when rents are high enough for their liking.
And the following paragraph should make it clear that the problem is not insufficient housing stock:
With more than 36,000 unhoused residents, Los Angeles simultaneously has over
93,000 units sitting vacant, nearly half of which are withheld from the housing market. Thousands of luxury units across the city are empty, owned as second homes or pure investments.
Using affordable housing to push through development simply makes little sense, especially given the likely detrimental outcome.
DOWNLOAD the infographic and make sure to contact the key players in this discussion. They need to hear from you now.
Council District 4
Nithya Raman 213-473-7004
Mashael Majid, Planning Manager, CD4 - mashael.majid@lacity.org
Council District 5
Paul Koretz - Paul.Koretz@lacity.org - 213-473-7005
Jeffrey Ebenstein, Director of Policy & Legislation, - jeffrey.ebenstein@lacity.org
Daniel Skolnick, Planning, - daniel.skolnick@lacity.org
Council District 13
Mitch O’Farrell - councilmember.ofarrell@lacity.org - 213-473-7013
Craig Bullock, Planning Director, - craig.bullock@lacity.org - 213-473-7569
Sean Starkey, Field Deputy, Field Deputy (Hollywood) - 213-207-3027
Contact us at the Preservation Resource Center
or at Hollywood Heritage
https://www.hollywoodheritage.org/
For further information on the economic and cultural benefits of historic preservation efforts in Los Angeles see:
“Preservation Positive Los Angeles – A study prepared by PlaceEconomics for the Los Angeles Conservancy 2020”
https://www.laconservancy.org/study-preservation-positive-los-angeles
