Park Proposed Atop Freeway

The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce is proposing the creation of a 24-acre park that would be built on a concrete cap atop the Hollywood Freeway – at a cost of several hundred million dollars.
By: DANIEL MILLER: Los Angeles Business Journal Online
The planned Hollywood Central Park, which boosters will announce this week, would be a grassy and tree-lined expanse over freeway traffic. The freeway essentially would be a tunnel for about two thirds of a mile under the park.

The chamber has worked behind the scenes for months to build support for the project, which it contends is critical for the development of Hollywood. Supporters include some local developers, neighborhood councils, elected officials and, most importantly, Caltrans – since the park would be built above state-owned land in state airspace.

“It is an easy decision. This is available air space put to good use for the public,” said Deborah Harris, spokeswoman for the California Department of Transportation. “If it can be used for the betterment of the community, we are all for it. Of course there are several details that have to be worked out. We look forward to looking further into this proposal.”

The park – which would stretch from around Hollywood to Sunset boulevards between North Bronson Avenue and North Wilton Place – will face its first test on Thursday when the board of the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency will decide whether to pay for a feasibility study.

If approved, the study would be done by engineering and planning firm Parsons Brinckerhoff Inc. with a targeted completion date of January. In addition to CRA money, the chamber is seeking money for the study from private donations.

Chamber officials said the park is a critical element for Hollywood to continue to thrive, given a severe lack of green space that makes the neighborhood less attractive for residents and businesses.

“We wanted to make sure … that the local economy and community is sustained, so we can build the community and have sustained growth,” said Rochelle Silsbee, vice president of public policy for the chamber. “It is primarily about protecting area livability.”

It is not clear who would own the park, though backers have not ruled out joint ownership by different entities.

Park deficient

Hollywood has a real need for open space, according to a report by the chamber.

The report indicates that in Los Angeles there are about 0.012 acres of open space per resident, and in Hollywood, the figure drops to 0.005 acres.

Also, a 2003 study by the Trust for Public Land found that two-thirds of Los Angeles children do not live by a park, while 91 percent of New York City children live within walking distance of one.
“We believe there is a severe park shortage here,” Silsbee said.

And that will only get worse, given that about 4,500 residential units are either approved or under construction near the park site, according to the report.

At its narrowest point, the proposed park would be as wide as a football field.

About 50 such “freeway cap parks” are in various stages of development around the country, including in Sacramento, Phoenix and Portland, Ore., according to the chamber. Locally, there is a small freeway cap park in La Cañada Flintridge above the Foothill (210) Freeway, just east of the Glendale (2) Freeway interchange.

And in Hollywood, land is more expensive than in many other cities. So while the park would be expensive, it still would be cheaper than acquiring 24 contiguous acres by traditional means, said Don Scott, a Hollywood Chamber of Commerce board member who first proposed the park.

Vacant land in Hollywood near the freeway costs between $200 and $400 per square foot, while the freeway park in Portland is being built on land that costs $200 per square foot, Scott said. Even so, the park could cost well over $200 million.

“It’s a big number, but we feel it’s achievable through federal, state, and local funds,” he said.

Local U.S. Reps. Xavier Becerra and Diane Watson have said that next year they will work to appropriate federal money for the project, according to Silsbee. The project planners are also eyeing the infrastructure bond on the Nov. 7 state ballot as a possible source of funding, should it pass.

A spokesman for Becerra said the congressman supports the project, while Watson could not be reached for comment. Still, the cost of the park could pose an impediment.

“It’s a wonderful idea. But you drive down the road and there are potholes everywhere, so I don’t know how they are going to build a cap on the 101,” said John Tronson, a principal in the Hollywood office of Ramsey-Shilling Commercial Real Estate Services. “While I think it’s a noble cause, I do have reservations about how much time people should spend on it until we can pay for it.”

Wired on coffee

Possible plans for the park include an amphitheatre, sports fields, and a European-style square. Plans for the park call for it not to eliminate on- or off-ramps to the freeway below.
“Our interest is in maintaining the lanes as they exist today as well as available space for future use,” said Harris, Caltrans spokesperson for District 7, which covers Los Angeles and Ventura counties.

Area schools and children would stand to benefit greatly from the park. At least three schools are in close proximity to the park, including Central Los Angeles High School, which is under construction. The proposed park also would be near two Metropolitan Transit Authority subway stations.

The park is the brainchild of Scott, who conceived it while driving on the Hollywood Freeway.

“I tell everyone I drank too much coffee that day,” said Scott, senior vice president at First Financial Bancorp. “But I was driving over the freeway and I heard something on the radio about the Big Dig in Boston. A light bulb went off.”

Scott concedes that the Big Dig – which involved sinking a 3.5 mile stretch of Interstate 93 in central Boston at a cost of nearly $15 billion – may be a controversial analogy. The East Coast project includes park land over the sunken highway, but has taken decades to build, experienced large cost overruns and recently a portion of the tunnel’s ceiling fell, killing a motorist.

By contrast the Hollywood park project involves building a concrete cap over an existing freeway, not sinking what was an elevated highway into a newly dug tunnel.

And what about calling it the Hollywood Central Park?

While the name may hark to the prominent park in New York, it also has some local meaning. The chamber says that the park is located at the nexus of central and east Hollywood.

For now the Hollywood Central Park is only an interim name, but supporters say they think it could stick – provided it is built in the first place.