Hollywood Sears development inches forward with traffic study

A big, slow-moving Hollywood project is taking a step forward. The Los Angeles City Council approved funding Monday to conduct a traffic study for a mixed-use development on a Santa Monica Boulevard site that’s home to a shuttered Sears, the Beverly Press reports.

Planning and city council documents indicate the seven-story project would bring 375 residential units, 1,447 parking spots, and almost 265,000 square feet of retail space to the 5.3-acre site, which is located between Wilton and St. Andrews. The development would also incorporate the tower atop the Sears building.

The council voted to set aside $190,000 for the Department of Transportation to hire a consultant and pay for the study, which would zero in on the project’s impact on traffic in the area and recommend ways to minimize it. It is not clear when the study would be completed. The money will come from a city fund set up to help pay for projects that improve mobility options and better the quality of life in Hollywood.

The Sears project was originally approved in 2007, when it was known as the Pazeo Plaza. As part of the project, the developer was required to pony up $900,000 for improvements in neighborhood surrounding the development. (The money went into the same fund that is paying for the traffic study.)

That same year, the Paseo Plaza was hit with a lawsuit brought by the La Mirada Avenue Neighborhood Association, which has sued a number of Hollywood developments, including the still unfinished Target at Sunset and Western.

The developer of the Paseo Plaza project, Continental Development Group, sold it to CIM Group in 2015. CIM once hoped to begin construction in 2016, but the Beverly Press says there’s no timeline now.

• Traffic to be studied for project at former Sears site [Beverly Press]
• Shuttered Hollywood Sears Could Be Rehabbed as Part of Big Mixed-Use Complex [Curbed LA]