TVC Project expected at City Council this month
AERIAL VIEW OF THE TVC proposed project.
The Los Angeles City Council is expected to vote as early as the first week of this month on the TVC 2050 Project proposed at the historic CBS Television City property at Beverly Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue.
The upcoming vote would be the final step in a five-year entitlement and approval process. It follows the recent unanimous vote of the Council’s Planning and Land Use Management (PLUM) Committee on Dec. 3.
The Hackman Capital Partners modernization and expansion project was approved by PLUM on that day after several “substantial modifications were made at the request of my office,” said Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky, a member of PLUM.
“The project is critical to the future viability of the entertainment industry in Los Angeles as we face increasing competition from cities around the world for these jobs,” Yaroslavsky wrote in a Dec. 8 newsletter, explaining her support for the 1.7-million-square-foot project. It includes sound stages, production support and general office and retail uses, and it retains 265,000 square feet of existing space on the historic, 52-year-old television studio property at 7800 Beverly Blvd., originally designed by architects William Pereira and Charles Luckman. The property’s iconic “Television City” entrance and logo facing Beverly Boulevard will remain under the Hackman proposal.
The PLUM committee heard comments from supporters of the project and from members of the opposition — including attorneys for six groups that appealed the previous Planning Commission approval of the development.
PLUM also denied the appeals and unanimously approved the project. Joining Yaroslavsky in providing the needed votes on PLUM were committee chair John Lee, 12th District, and Councilmember Kevin de Leon, 14th District. Committee members Heather Hutt and Imelda Padilla were absent.
In a statement following the PLUM hearing, Zach Sokoloff, senior vice president for Hackman Capital Partners, said, “This investment in Television City will ensure the studio remains a premier production facility and continues to employ thousands of Angelenos whose livelihood relies on the entertainment industry.”
Yaroslavsky said that her support of the project, with modifications, came down to the studio jobs it would net.
While the adopted amendments offered by Yaroslavsky ensure the site is used as a studio in perpetuity, opponents of the project were not pleased.
“The real news coming out of the TVC hearing at PLUM … was a bombshell from [Councilmember] Yaroslavsky,” said Shelley Wagers, co-founder of Neighbors for Responsible TVC Development.
“We have said from day one that TVC was bogus, an office park disguised as a studio expansion. New conditions set by Yaroslavsky and announced at the hearing proved our point,” Wagers added in a statement following the PLUM hearing.
“The Specific Plan, which determines the use of the site in perpetuity, requires just 150,000 square feet of the development be used for sound stage, production support and production offices. The project overall is 1.7 million square feet. Does anyone seriously think that reserving just 150,000 square feet of it for production will revitalize an industry that’s in a tailspin?
“Television City currently has nearly 600,000 square feet devoted to soundstages, production support, and production offices. Requiring just 150,000 square feet is not a studio expansion. It’s a studio contraction.”
Wagers and her fellow Neighbors for Responsible TVC Development founder, Danielle Peters, added that — based on the number of appeals filed earlier — litigation is likely to follow.
Opponents of the project include Caruso (The Grove), A.F. Gilmore Company (Original Farmers Market) and others. Supporters include Park La Brea Residents Association, Los Angeles Conservancy, Holocaust Museum Los Angeles and more.
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