Politics & Government

Opponents File Lawsuit Against Millennium Project

The lawsuit alleges the city violated the California Environmental Quality Act.

Opponents of a proposed Hollywood skyscraper project filed a lawsuit Wednesday in hopes of blocking the development, alleging city officials and the developer's geologists failed to disclose the proximity of an earthquake fault to the project site.

The lawsuit, filed by attorney Robert Silverstein on behalf of several community groups, names the developer --Millennium Hollywood LLC -- the City Council and the city of Los Angeles, challenging the council's July approval of the Millennium Hollywood project.

Opponents contend critical information about the Hollywood Fault, the exact location of which has not yet been determined, was suppressed in studies of the project's environmental impact.

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"City staff agreed to allow preparation of a draft (Environmental Impact Report) that would contain materially misleading and false representations regarding the location of the Hollywood Earthquake Fault and the fact that the east site of the property was within the boundary of the city's own Earthquake Fault Rupture Study Area," according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit alleges the city violated the California Environmental Quality Act and that "because the city failed properly and timely to notify and consult with the California Department of Conservation, State Geological Survey, as a responsible agency, the (environmental study) must be invalidated on this additional ground."

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The multimillion-dollar project calls for 35- and 39-story towers on Vine Street near the Capitol Records building.

Jeff Millman, spokesman for Mayor Eric Garcetti, insisted that city officials are looking into the project's earthquake risks.

"While the city has approved the project's design and concept, the city's Department of Building and Safety has directed Millennium to conduct trenching that will be reviewed by the department's geologist," Millman said.

"The state is also mapping the area for any active faults," he added. "The city will not permit the construction of new buildings on top of active faults."

Silverstein said the lawsuit -- filed on behalf of StopTheMillenniumHollwyood.com, Communities United for Reasonable Development, the Beachwood Canyon Neighborhood Association and George Abrahams -- is simply aimed at getting the city to follow the law.

"What my clients are demanding is that City Hall stop suppressing evidence, stop violating laws enacted by the state legislature and by the City Council itself," Silverstein said.

"If the city follows the law and listens to the impartial opinions of seismic experts, then my clients can live with the results, whatever they may be," Silverstein said. "But we cannot accept City Council and developer collusion that hides and minimizes critical life, health and safety information."

The lawsuit also refers to an earlier criticism of the project's potential to draw more traffic to the Hollywood area, alleging the city did not heed Caltrans' request to redo a study of the project's traffic impacts.

"That city-sanctioned study was woefully inadequate," Silverstein said. "That's not me or my clients' talking, that's Caltrans talking."

Wednesday's lawsuit was filed within a week of another legal challenge lodged by W Hotel and Residences, which is located in Hollywood near the Millennium site.

The hotel's attorney, Benjamin Reznik, said his client objects to the Millennium project's "generic, amorphous" specifications, which leave open how wide the towers could be built and its potential for blocking the view of the Hollywood sign and other views from the vantage point of the W Hotel.

Aside from the maximum height specifications, the city did not ask Millennium to commit to any other necessary project description, Reznik said.

W Hotel's suit also takes issue with the way the project's potential earthquake risks and traffic impacts were studied.

-City News Service  


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