The plans to turn a restored (and, ideally, landmarked) Hollywood Palladium into the centerpiece for a big new development with two towers up to 28 stories tall and filled with residences, retail, and maybe a hotel (like Hollywood doesn't have enough of those in the works) might have hit a far-too-common-in-Hollywood roadblock. Park Labrea News/Beverly Press reports that both the AIDS Healthcare Foundation and Kilroy Realty Corp. (developers of the nearby Columbia Square project and the Academy Square project on De Longpre) are appealing the project for being all-around too big for the neighborhood.
In their appeal to the project, Kilroy says that the proposed two-tower development is out of step with the community and too dense. Kilroy says they actually tried to work with the developers, Crescent Heights (specifically CH Palladium, LLC.), but that the designs are still "largely disproportionate" to what's in the neighborhood now. Kilroy is formally appealing the Palladium project's tentative tract map and what they say were insufficient environmental impact reports (both the draft and final) that "ignored or minimalized" some of the huge effects such a development could have on the area.
In their separate appeal, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which both rents and owns property in Hollywood and is headquartered there, says that they've heard from locals "who are concerned that the impact of this massive project on them is not being considered." While they're not against all development, says AHF, they are in favor of slowing down "unbridled" development in Hollywood.
One element of the proposed Palladium complex that both appeals take issue with is a 14-floor parking garage. Even though four of those levels would be underground, the structure would still rise 10 stories above-ground, much taller than the other buildings around it.
Because this is Hollywood, among the community members vocally opposing the project is Doug Haines, possibly the only member of the La Mirada Avenue Neighborhood Association, who often works with the anti-density lawyer Robert Silverstein. Together, they've successfully stalled the Hollywood Target (that unfinished skeleton at Sunset and Western) and created a shitstorm of trouble for CIM Group at the Sunset/Gordon tower, where residents were in limbo for months, unsure of whether or not the building could even be occupied. (It can't be, but they're allowed to stay for now.)
Both Kilroy and the AHF's appeals will be up for consideration when the full Palladium project is on the City Planning Commission's docket later in the year.
· Appeals filed against Palladium project [BP]
· New Views of the Hollywood Palladium Two-Tower Mixed-User [Curbed LA]
· Hollywood's Palladium Towers to Include Palladium Restoration [Curbed LA]