The Planning and Land Use Management Committee unanimously approved of the city portion of the Universal Evolution Plan on Tuesday afternoon and sent it to the full Los Angeles City Council for approval on Nov. 14.
Councilman Paul Krekorian, who represents Studio City and North Hollywood, spoke before the committee and asked for $300,000 for neighborhood improvement and beautification for North Hollywood and Studio City.
(CORRECTION: A previous version said that this money was broken down by area, but instead, $100,000 will go for neighborhood improvements, such as traffic mitigation measures, and $200,000 for beautification for both areas, to be decided on by the city in consultation with the CD2 office).
(See a portion of his request in the video above.)
Krekorian thanked NBC Universal for including Studio City in their Universal Evolution Plan and making outreach to the community but said it was “slow in coming.” He pointed out that the Studio City Neighborhood Council voted recently to support the revised plan after the residential units were removed from the plan.
The hours of testimony were mostly positive and in favor of the program. About 200 people showed up, and many of them were from some of the 30 local unions that stand to be employed during the $1.6 billion construction project.
Members of the neighborhood councils and residential community groups from Toluca Lake, Hollywood Hills, Cahuenga Pass, Sherman Oaks and others attended the meeting and spoke. Many were the same people who attended other community hearings over the past few months.
Deuk Perrin from the Campo de Cahuenga, Ron Wood from the Valley Economic Alliance, Krista Michaels from the Cahuenga Pass Property Owners Association, Anastasia Mann from the Hollywood Hills West Neighborhood Council, Toluca Lake Neighborhood Council President Andrew Westall, actor/Studio City resident Sean Grady and many others all spoke in favor of the project and expressed their support.
Corinne Verdery and George J. Mihlsten represented the Universal Evolution Plan. Verdery said NBC/Universal is "one of the largest employers in the San Fernando Valley and... there are 6,500 community supporters."
Director of Planning Michael Graham said his staff has been analyzing the project said that like the convention center, he is "very excited to talk about new projects like this in Los Angeles."
