Giant Cap Records Towers Won't Start Work For a Long Time

After two full-steam-ahead years of planning, environmental reports, and approvals, the enormous Millennium Hollywood project--two very tall mixed-use towers set to flank the Capitol Records Building--is about to start taking things nice and easy. Reps have told LA Weekly they're not planning to pull and building permits, or even start some very necessary earthquake fault testing, until two lawsuits against the project are resolved. The lawsuits were brought, respectively, by the neighboring W Hollywood and by rich Hills residents represented by prolific development-staller Robert Silverstein--while Silverstein has shown in the past that he's very willing to settle for a chunk of cash, it's still pretty likely that at least one of the lawsuits will drag on in appeals, potentially for years.

MillHoll's towers are 35 and 39 stories, smack in the middle of Hollywood, so the opposition came early and often--opponents cried traffic! blocked views! (and let's never forget that some sick assholes actually cried rape), etc. before finally realizing what the California Geological Survey figured out in 2010: the project sits close to and possibly on top of the active Hollywood Fault. State law prohibits building close to an active fault, but the Hollywood hasn't been mapped in detail (budget constraints), which created a little loophole. When all this came out, MillHoll's developers said they'd trench and get the whole story, but now a rep says they won't trench until they're ready to pull permits, and they won't pull permits until all the legal issues are resolved.
· Millennium Hollywood Towers Are Postponed [LAW]
· Huge Cap Records Towers May Be On an Active Fault. Or Not. [Curbed LA]