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Fault map from earlier this year.
This news from the state geologist won't be good for the developers of the proposed Millennium Hollywood tower or their friends in City Hall. The California Geological Survey's final map of the Hollywood earthquake fault, released today, shows the fault line coursing south of the famed Capitol Records building and underneath the development site for Millennium Hollywood, proposed to be the tallest tower ever erected in Hollywood. “Our conclusion from the data is that there is an active fault, and it does run right along the course that’s right along the map,” said state geologist John Parrish, who had been revising older maps of the Hollywood fault zone. The big winners of the new finding are the residents in the hills above the site who have been goosing up opposition to the Millennium project over the past year or more.
Mayor Eric Garcetti and other City Hall types have backed the up-densifying of central Hollywood with projects such as the Millennium.
From today's LA Times story:
The state's findings further complicate the future of the project, which has the backing of L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti and other elected city leaders.Developers want to build 35- and 39-story buildings that would add 1 million square feet of housing, hotel rooms, offices, restaurants and stores, transforming land littered with parking lots into a new urban hub full of workers and shoppers in a project that could be worth as much as $1 billion.
The developer’s consultant, Michael Reader, again asserted Thursday that his study shows no evidence of active faults underneath Millennium.
“We’re disappointed,” Reader said, adding that the state's conclusion is “in our opinion, incorrect.”
Because of the risk to public safety, California law generally bans new buildings on an active earthquake fault.
Opponents plan to hold a 2:30 p.m. media op in the traffic island at the corner of Argyle and Yucca Streets.
Previously on LA Observed:
Hollywood fault may lie under some well-known properties
New state maps put Hollywood buildings on faults
Journalists' guide to reporting on earthquakes in SoCal
