HOLLYWOOD—A ruling from Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge James C. Chalfant halted development of the Millennium Hollywood skyscraper project on April 30. Chalfant ruled that the city of Los Angeles disregarded Caltrans’s concerns that construction would negatively impact traffic in the area.
His decision forces Millennium developers to re-draft their original environmental impact report in order to move forward with construction plans.
Caltrans initially drew attention to traffic issues in May 2011, but their concerns continued after the release of the City’s environmental impact report in December 2012. Caltrans held that construction would produce over-clogging on the nearby 101 freeway as well as on surrounding surface streets.
It was also suggested that the increase in traffic could make general transportation in the affected area unsafe. Judge Chalfant’s 46-page report expressed that Millennium did not properly analyze and address the specific claims made by Caltrans. Millennium reps disagreed, stating they heard and looked into the concerns, but were under no obligation to assume them.
Thursday’s decision came amidst other controversies surrounding the project including a report from state geology officials that the intended location for the two skyscrapers is also an active earthquake fault zone.
Brian Lewis, Media Relations Director for Marathon Communications, provided the following statement to Canyon News from Philip Aarons of Millennium Partners: “We are gratified by the judge’s ruling on the seismic issues acknowledging the appropriateness of our studies. We are considering our options for addressing the issues cited by the court and are fully committed to moving forward with our project.”
