Two days after voters in Los Angeles relaxed term limits for the City Council, I received the following e-mail from a council staffer:
"Are there any legal challenges going on to this Prop? ... I need to know if I should buy that new car on the 6-yr or 2-yr plan."
My vote: go for the 72 months, upgrade to satellite radio and treat yourself to heated seats because it can get chilly in the e-mailer's district.
With the issue of term limits now resolved, everyone's attention in City Hall can now return to what really counts: development disputes.
And that leads us to downtown Hollywood....
What's Council President Eric Garcetti's beef with the proposed $350-million mixed-use project near the Pantages Theater?
Aesthetics and the lack of open space.
The back story: The New York-based Clarett Group wants to build more than 1,000 residential units and 175,000 feet of retail space on 7.3 acres along Hollywood Boulevard. It would be one of the largest developments of its type in the city.
The site is currently occupied by parking lots. The location is enticing: It is adjacent to both the new Hollywood and Vine development project -- that will include a W Hotel -- and a subway stop.
One of the more remarkable aspects of the dispute is that it does not involve the question of density or traffic. Several community groups, including the local neighborhood councils, have endorsed the project.
And it's not the size that bothers Garcetti. He, in fact, has a long-standing policy of adding a mix of housing and retail to his district.
This one is about aesthetics. Garcetti wants more open space, better access to the subway and better architecture to make this project stand out from the many other mixed-use projects around town.
"Hollywood Boulevard is the Champs Elysees of Hollywood, and we deserve the best, but this falls short of the greatness I think it deserves," Garcetti said. "They are good developers, but they have a little bit of a fortress" with this plan "and there is no real public space."
And what do the developers say?
"I am hoping that we can bring the councilman around this -- we want to work with him -- but we think that we have an aesthetically pleasing project," said Ben Reznik, the prominent land-use attorney hired by the developer.
"We did a calculation of all the open space in the project, and it comes to 30,000 square feet," he added. "That's huge."
