THE CITY - Unless it is chastened by serious legal challenges, the Los Angeles City Council will soon adopt the Update to the Hollywood Community Plan. This is the first of 11 Updates, with 24 more to eventually follow. While each Update will appear to be different, the Hollywood Plan indicates their content will be similar. They will all facilitate new real estate projects on privately owned lots, not address the needs of local residents.
A careful look at the Hollywood Plan reveals exactly how this approach works. So far the Hollywood Plan’s primary implementation tool is loosening building regulations on private parcels in transit corridors and transit-adjacent neighborhoods. As has already been pointed out through CityWatch, this extensive up-zoning and up-planning is based on phantom demographics. The real population trend in Hollywood is decline, not growth. For these and other reasons these transit-oriented developments have not and will not succeed.
Nevertheless, there is much more that this Plan could do to successfully promote transit use, one of the Update’s often-repeated objectives. The Plan should, but does not, attempt to change the transportation patterns of existing Hollywood residents. Instead, its only goal is to lure new tenants into new buildings.
To reach the existing residents, and to get them out of their cars and into subways and buses, as well as to walk and bike on local streets, there are many public improvements that this plan should emphasize, but does not.
Here are four such public improvements that this plan should implement. They are all low hanging fruit. They have been tried, tested, refined, and shown to work in city after city, in both the US and abroad.
First, improve the walking experience, especially near transit, by sidewalk widening, ADA curb cuts and other repairs, customized street lighting, place-making signage, street furniture, pedestrian-activated cross walks, aggressive sign control, and an extensive tree canopy.
Second, improve the transit experience for both residents and visitors through better bus shelters and benches, comfortable seating, real time signage, smart phone aps, reliable schedules, shorter headways, cheaper fares, and easily accessible on-site services.
Third, layer clearly marked bikeways on all major Hollywood streets. Whenever possible, they should be separated from traffic.
Fourth, increase the amount of local amenities, especially pocket parks that can be reached on foot.
All of this is off the shelf technology, and none of it is expensive. It needs to be immediately added to the Hollywood Plan in the form of amendments to the City’s Capital Improvement Program before this Update precedes any further.
(Dick Platkin is a CityWatch contributor. He lives in Los Angeles where he teaches, consults, and writes on city planning. He is also active in the Beverly Wilshire Homes Association and the East Hollywood Neighborhood Council where he serves on the Planning Entitlement Committee. You can reach Dick Platkin at [email protected])
-cw
Tags: Dick Platkin, Planning, Hollywood, Hollywood Community Plan, Planning Department, Eric Garcetti
CityWatch
Vol 10 Issue 38
Pub: May 11, 2012