NBCUniversal's megadevelopment Evolution Plan is now just a boring old Universal City expansion--NBCU announced today that they're dropping the residential part of the plan, which would've added about 2,900 units and more on 120 acres. A statement from President Ron Meyer says "after taking a hard look at the project, the current real estate market, our business needs and the needs of our surrounding communities, we believe it's best to ask the City and County to focus on our 20-year plan without any residential development and to retain our backlot for production." County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky wrote a letter to NBCU back in January asking it to drop this part of the Evolution Plan (which we're going to start calling the EvolP, ok?). A draft environmental impact report on the project came out in 2010 and so this decision was made as NBCU was considering all the feedback and working on a final EIR (which was finally released today).
Now that the residential's been axed, how will the rest of the plan change? The biggest change is the addition of a second 500 room hotel (the plan already called for one). It'll also have slightly more studio space, including production facilities and offices and a little more entertainment, in the form of theme park attractions, retail, and restaurants. NBCU is still planning to make all the traffic improvements that it's promised.
· Supe Asks NBCU to Drop Housing at Universal City Development [Curbed LA]
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