Plan for Hollywood Densification Gets Final Approval

In the making since 2001, a decade that has seen Hollywood transformed, "from a seedy haven for drug dealing and prostitution into a smartly planned, cosmopolitan center of homes, jobs, entertainment and public transportation," the community plan was strongly supported by the Mayor, local councilmembers, and business groups, but opposed by some neighborhood groups. James Brasuell at Curbed LA shares the gory details from yesterday's "one final, loud public comment period featuring many of the same fireworks that thrilled observers when the plan appeared before the City Planning Commission in December and the Planning and Land Use Management Committee in March."

According to the Los Angeles Times, "critics, especially those who live in the Hollywood Hills, fear new growth could bring an onslaught of added traffic and spoil their million-dollar views. After the plan passed on a 13-0 vote, critics vowed to sue the city for failing to conduct an adequate environmental review."

And it's that last point that has Matthew Yglesias, at Slate, fuming. He uses the Hollywood plan controversy to make a larger point about the abuse of environmental regulations as a "free-floating pretext for anyone to stop anything." While it doesn't sound as if Yglesias is in a position to make an informed judgement on the adequacy of the environmental review conducted for this plan, his bigger point deserves consideration.