Summer 2022
Alert: Transformation of Television City Planned
The impacts of this project will destroy our community
Please, don’t believe all the misinformation being spread by this developer!
Hackman Capital Partners, the new owners of Television City (the former site of CBS Television City) is proposing a massive development on the property at Beverly Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue. Their plan would designate the area as a “Regional Center” (such as Century City and most of Downtown LA). The plan will create a massive production facility, which, if approved, would overwhelm and transform the community. The project includes 2 million square feet, up to a 230 foot office tower, a 5,000-car parking garage and more than a dozen giant sound stages that can each accommodate large audiences, causing enormous traffic and parking implications in our neighborhood. At least 83 trucks will be making deliveries each day once it is built. Beverly Blvd., Fairfax, The Grove Drive and 3rd street will be all backed up pushing traffic more on to residential streets.
There will be at least 3 entrance/exits to the new studio. In addition to the entrance on Beverly Blvd., there will be a second entrance on Beverly Blvd., an entrance on The Grove Drive, and one on Fairfax. Beverly and Third are already at gridlock much of the day. People going to and from the project will be looking for shortcuts through the residential neighborhood. For example, the Fairfax access will be aligned with 1st Street, which will have a signal. Because there is a signal cars exiting the project will easily be able to cross over Fairfax and enter neighborhood streets going west. They will learn the ways to avoid Fairfax traffic as we all do. The same is true of the Beverly access. Cars driving north will cross Beverly onto streets like Genesee and Stanley. Those streets north of Beverly will be inundated with traffic. The problem is compounded by the fact that many people who work there will live in the Valley, Orange County, or the West Side. The freeway access to those locations is not nearby. At a recent hearing, their traffic expert Patrick Gibson admitted the negative impacts. He said they will put $250,000 in a traffic mitigation fund for the community. Who would decide how to mitigate these problems? We think that they should design a project that won’t swamp our residential area with traffic. They have the experts. If they can’t come up with an appropriate plan that protects the residents, they need to scale back the size of the project.
Los Angeles is divided into different areas. Each one has its own community plan for development. Our plan is the Wilshire Community Plan. If developers stuck to the plan we wouldn’t be fighting about development all the time. People would know what they are entitled to build. But our plan was last updated in 2001 so it is obsolete. That is why we have spot zoning – city planning by developers. It’s a free for all! The Wilshire Community Plan is scheduled to be updated in 2023. When the plans are updated, the community and the planning department and politicians will write the plan together. Here the developer – Hackman is seeking to rezone this parcel to a Regional Center without the community’s input.
We believe that this proposal should not be considered without a comprehensive and long-overdue update of the Wilshire Community Plan by the City Planning Department and the community. After that takes place, a discussion of a “Regional Center” or other changes to the landscape of the community can take place.
The Farmers Market and The Grove are both opposed to the current plans for the project. They have started a group called the Beverly Fairfax Community Alliance.
Other Projects Coming to Our Area:
656 S. San Vicente Blvd. 238 ft. Medical Office Tower. We asked you to call Councilperson Koretz for his support with this project. Sadly, he was not there for us. This project has not received final approval from the city yet. In September it will go before the Planning and Land Use Management Committee and to the City Council. We have hired an attorney to preserve our right to appeal in court and we had a traffic study done by our own traffic expert.
This project will generate 3552 car trips per day on the San Vicente frontage road,
Sweetzer, 6th Street and Orange Street.
Across Sweetzer from the Medical Building 6527-6535 Wilshire – a 243 foot residential tower with ground floor retail.
Town and Country (Fairfax and 3rd Street) will begin soon. All buildings east of the patio where Andres was will be torn down. CVS and Whole Foods will remain during construction. Once finished Whole Foods will move into the new building on the second floor. The Market will be 50% larger and have a full restaurant with alcohol sales.
333 S. San Vicente Blvd. Mt. Lebanon Church is still planning to build a 220 foot residential tower but it will be a senior living facility with memory care, etc. It is being redesigned from what we were shown earlier but the size and bulk of the project will be the same.
We keep learning new things about these and other projects all the time. Please check back for updates.
Please Vote in November
There are so many negative things happening on our streets right now. It is hard to maintain any positivity, but please vote in November. We have a chance to elect new people. Please research and select the people that you think have the best chance of moving us forward.