Hollywood Palladium: AHF Challenges City Council on Delay of Historic Monument Nomination as Development Vote Looms
In a letter to the Los Angeles City Council, AHF asserts “denial of
due process of law” and asks that the Council delay a hearing on the
Palladium Residences Project development scheduled for March 15th
until after Council has heard AHF’s Historic-Cultural Monument
nomination for the Palladium building.
Last summer, AHF submitted a formal
nomination to the City asking the Council to designate the
Hollywood Palladium a Historic-Cultural Monument. AHF believes the
Council is deliberately delaying a hearing on the nomination until after
the Council acts on the Palladium Residences Project March 15th.
LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)–AIDS
Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS organization,
is asserting “denial of due process of law” by the Los
Angles City Council with regard to the Council’s failure to act on
AHF’s nomination of the iconic Hollywood Palladium for Historic-Cultural
Monument status by the City. In a letter
sent to the Los Angeles City Council today, AHF, whose world
headquarters are located next to the Palladium in Hollywood, is asking
the Council to delay a hearing on the Palladium
Residences Project development scheduled for March 15th
until after the Council holds a hearing on AHF’s pending nomination for
the Palladium that the Council has yet to act on.
In the letter, sent on behalf of AHF by the Silverstein
Law Firm, AHF asserts claims of denial of due process regarding lack
of action on its application and nomination for Historic-Cultural
Monument status for the Palladium. As to possible Historic-Cultural
Monument status to actually protect the Palladium, AHF wrote:
“When AHF first began its review of the Project, it was odd that the
applicant had not already nominated the Palladium as a City
historic-cultural monument (“Monument”). The Palladium and its
historic setting are clearly eligible for Monument status, and the City
and applicant concede this fact in the Cultural Resources section of the
Draft EIR for the Project.
The Project conditions as originally proposed by the applicant were
not that the applicant would invest in a particular set of physical
improvements to actually preserve the Palladium building, but rather
that, in exchange for a more than doubling of the density permitted by
right (an increase in value to the applicant on the order of
approximately $50 million), the applicant would merely ‘nominate’ the
Palladium as a Monument.”
Crescent
Heights Communities, the developer of the Palladium Residences
Project, still has not even nominated the Palladium, and there is no
express requirement that it do anything to follow through on that
process if it submits a nomination. AHF, on the other hand, is demanding
a hearing so that it can follow through on its nomination application.
“That City officials would make such a poor bargain in relation to one
of Hollywood’s most iconic venues was shocking,” said Michael
Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation and a
member and backer of the Coalition
to Preserve L.A., a ballot initiative campaign seeking a moratorium
on ‘mega’ development throughout Los Angeles. “In addition, we firmly
believe a denial of AHF’s hearing on its nomination prior to a City
Council vote would deny AHF its civil rights. Therefore, we respectfully
ask that the Council delay that March 15th hearing until
Council has held a hearing on our nomination.”
Tellingly, City Council Member Mitch
O’Farrell (D, Council District 13) nominated the Palladium for
Historic-Cultural Monument status on November 17, 2015 despite the fact
that AHF’s nomination from last summer remained pending and had not yet
been acted on by the City Council. Rather than work to protect the
Palladium, O’Farrell’s nomination has instead appeared to unduly delay
the hearing on AHF’s nomination.
AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS
organization, currently provides medical care and/or services to over
598,000 individuals in 35 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin
America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region and Eastern Europe. To learn
more about AHF, please visit our website: www.aidshealth.org,
find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/aidshealth
and follow us on Twitter: @aidshealthcare
and Instagram: @aidshealthcare
Contacts
AHF
Ged Kenslea
Senior Director, Communications,
+1.323.308.1833
work
+1.323.791.5526 mobile
gedk@aidshealth.org
or
Jacqueline
Burbank
Manager of Sales & Marketing
+1.323.208.1505
mobile
Jacqueline.burbank@aidshealth.org
