Zoning considered for TV City; tours, drinks offered
TVC 2050 PROJECT was on display at Tarfest.
The developer of the proposed expansion of the vast Television City property at Beverly Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue is making a full-court PR press throughout the community surrounding the project directly north of, and adjoining, the Original Farmers Market and The Grove.
Tours are being offered of the historic Television City facilities, where the project continues to be mired in controversy.
Developer Hackman Capital Partners seeks adoption of a Specific Plan for the property that it purchased from CBS Corporation in late 2018.
The application for the TVC 2050 Project also seeks city designation of the property as a “regional center.” If approved, the designation would allow buildings with heights up to approximately 20 stories on the 25-acre site.
The proposed new zoning would also allow 1.9 million square feet of sound stage, office and other uses, plus 1.6 million square feet of additional development.
The developer says the project would create jobs and modernize and expand the aging TV studio, originally developed in 1952.
“We know that the TVC Project will benefit not only studio workers… but local businesses and neighbors,” Zach Sokoloff, senior vice president, Hackman Capital Partners, told us in an earlier statement.
Tours
To better acquaint the public with the plans, the developer is offering free in-person tours of the iconic studio, giving an inside look at the historic site while outlining the plans for modernization and expansion.
“Lunch on the Lot” is offered by day, and “Cocktails and Conversations” takes place in the evenings.
“A studio tour is an intimate opportunity to meet so many of our neighbors, share our proposed project with them, and get their feedback and ideas. I have loved hearing from visiting community members and sharing our hopes to protect and uplift our neighborhood together and to keep this iconic studio open long into the future,” said Adeena Bleich, vice president, Community Relations of Television City. To sign up for a tour, visit: tvcstudios.com/get-involved.
“More substance, less smoke”
NEIGHBORS for Responsible TVC Development co-chairs Danielle Peters, left, and Shelley Wagers, right, address the community at a meeting held at Della Terra restaurant on Beverly Boulevard.
But opponents of the project are not impressed with the modernization plan or the new tours.“Hackman has what looks like a PR / outreach blitz campaign going. No sign yet of a final EIR with more substance and less smoke,” Danielle Peters, co-chair of Neighbors for Responsible TVC Development, told us in an email.
“Meanwhile, we’re broadening our base of support. Just say the word ‘traffic,’ and locals get one big piece of the picture. The community is floored by the prospect of something more than twice the size of Staples Center, and Hackman’s bid for a 20-year construction ‘window’ doesn’t play well, either.”
Some 40 neighbors attended a June 4 community meeting to discuss “the threat posed by this massive and ill-defined project,” Wagers said. The meeting took place at Della Terra Restaurant
on Beverly Boulevard at Spaulding Avenue, just across the street from TV City.
“We hear growing concerns that the proposed TVC development will dwarf our community and snarl traffic throughout the immediate vicinity and in all the freeway-adjacent neighborhoods downstream.”
Meanwhile, representatives for the developer recently have made presentations to residents of Park La Brea and to members of the Greater Miracle Mile Chamber of Commerce.The City of Los Angeles Planning Dept. staff is reviewing hundreds of letters submitted last fall during the public comment phase of the project’s Environmental Impact Report (EIR) preparation.
The Final Environmental Impact Report is still being prepared with no known release date set, according to the Planning Department.
Category: News
