Efforts to redevelop blighted areas in North Hollywood may be going too far, some residents said, as plans are unveiled for three 27-story high condominium towers, it was reported Sunday. More than $5 billion in private investment is earmarked for areas near the Red Line subway train, as developers seek to supply new houses, offices and stores within walking distance of transit hubs and suddenly-fashionable streets that once were laced with vacant storefronts, the Daily News reported.
A trio of 27-story high condos are in the design phase for an area presently occupied by vacant lots and one house between North Hollywood and Valley Village, a project that could include 1,249 new residential units, 37,000 feet of retail space, and 2,900 parking places.
Called Artwalk East and West, the project is touted by developer Allen Freeman as "the type of development the city wants to do around a major transportation node. It's about a two-minute walk from the subway, and there is no better location for new housing," he told the Daily News.
Other major projects that are on tap include a redo of the aging Valley Plaza center, and the NBC/Universal $3 billion expansion at Universal City, which would include a huge new office building atop the Red Line station at Lankershim Boulevard at the Hollywood (101) Freeway.
The massive new projects, particularly the 27-story condo towers in North Hollywood, are too much, city planners and some residents told the newspaper. The city plan for the area calls for preservation of existing single-family houses in the tract neighborhoods surrounding commercial streets in the Valley, but residential towers of up to 20 floors on major streets.
The Artwalk developer, JSM Capital, has sued a city agency over its design guidelines, which cap buildings at 20 stories. One NoHo resident who has seen the area's fortunes ebb and flow over 40 years worries that Artwalk's three towers may be too much.
"We are not anti-development," Don Eitner told the newspaper. "When we started, we were talking about 14- and 15-story buildings around the subway, but now you have a project away from the commercial core proposing 27 stories. "It's like a mushroom," Eitner said.
Source: Daily News