Next Door Neighbors Suing Over Hollywood Palladium Towers

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation in Hollywood isn't too pleased about its new next door neighbor. The organization is suing the City of Los Angeles for approving a pair of residential high-rises set to go up on Sunset Boulevard adjacent to the historic Hollywood Palladium (the AIDS Healthcare Foundation's offices are located across the street). As the LA Times reports, the lawsuit alleges that the city violated both its charter and the California Environmental Quality Act when it gave approval to the project last month.

The suit also challenges the city's practice of adjusting zoning rules to accommodate individual projects. It's this issue that's at the heart of a dramatically anti-development ballot measure that the AIDS Healthcare Foundation is helping to support. Called the Neighborhood Integrity Initiative, the measure would force the city to adhere to 20-year-old zoning laws and halt construction on many larger projects.

Voters won't decide on that measure until March of 2017, but in the meantime it looks like the AIDS Healthcare Foundation wants to get a head start on shutting down the project that's closest to home. A spokesman for the Palladium Residences told the LA Times that the allegations made in the lawsuit are "baseless," arguing that the project has undergone extensive environmental review and public hearing processes. But as LAist points out, extraordinarily successful anti-development lawyer Robert Silverstein will be arguing the AIDS Healthcare Foundation's case. It's still possible that developer Crescent Heights might see its mixed-use towers go the way of the Hollywood Target.

• AIDS nonprofit sues L.A. over planned Hollywood towers [LA Times]
• NIMBYs Sue Proposed 731 Unit Hollywood Palladium Development [LAist]
• Hollywood Palladium Towers Approved in Face of Anti-Development Measure [Curbed LA]
• Palladium Towers Moving Right Along Despite NIMBY War [Curbed LA]