There's a local initiative facing Santa Monicans this November regarding development in the name of traffic. The Residents' Initiative to Fight Traffic's (RIFT) ballot measure would amend the land use element of Santa Monica's general plan "to establish an annual limit on commercial development" within the city until 2023. The working theory is that traffic can't increase much if new jobs aren't made available in new developments. These days, SaMo traffic is pretty gridlocked and......

The Northridge Fashion Center area is getting a development boost with an influx of development projects. Three of the four are mixed use with retail/commercial space on the first floors and the site Kmart is expected to be razed for one of the residential buildings, according to the Daily News. Of course, there are major concerns over increased traffic and to date, there are no major public transit lines in the immediate area. Add to......

What? So, Metro is set to vote this week on a mixed-use residential/commercial development that will literally be feet from the Orange Line Sepulveda station in Van Nuys (you know, in that huge parking lot no one uses). "When they first came to me about it, it was supposed to be all residential," Councilman Tony Cardenas, who represents the area, is quoted saying in the Daily News. "Now they are talking about having commercial development."......

Usually, building codes are not at the forefront of state politics, but recently, as Los Angeles and other cities are setting their own building standards, a statewide standard was passed. It's a good step, but Schwarzenegger and environmentalists have differing views on if it is strong enough or not, even though it is the strictest in the U.S. "Nationwide, buildings consume 39% of energy, 12% of potable water, and 40% of raw materials, according to......

Think LA's relationship with underground rail transit began with the first tunnels blasted out to make way for the Red Line? Think again! LA's first subterranean transit system was a short stretch of tunneling dubbed the "Hollywood Subway," which moved its first passengers under the city in 1925 via electric interurban rail cars. Opening Day in Toluca Yard (end of the Hollywood Subway at 1st and Glendale); original source unkonwn, via California Trolleys The idea......

Not so fast hotel builders and Bevelry Hills politicians. Residents who fought (see the protest photos here) to keep the Beverly Hilton from turning into a new huge hotel/condo project have gotten their issue qualified for the November ballot, according to LA County who counted and verified the petition signatures. The Beverly HIlls city "council could decide to put the issue before the voters, or repeal the resolution which was the subject of the referendum......

Capitol Records was hoping the plan for a 16-story condo building next door to their iconic Hollywood & Vine tower would not go through. They're worried that construction of an underground 242-space parking lot and vibrations from traffic will cause damage. It "will interfere with and potentially ruin the operation of the unique echo chambers and sound studios at the Capitol Records tower next door," the record company said in a statement. On Tuesday at......

The music venue that is the Knitting Factory has been a mainstay in the resurgence of Hollywood since 2000. As an anchor tenant and early adopter of the area, the New York City based club saw Hollywood change from having the 18th Street Gang territory sit one block away to having tourists flock the area making it a likely candidate for one of the most pedestrian dense areas in the city. Now that the area......

The Woodland Hills Warner Center Neighborhood Council’s “Panel Of Visionaries” led over 300 community leaders in Saturday’s “The Destiny of the West Valley” forum, challenging the community to demand walkable streets, complete and effective mass transit, park-once concepts, circulators and people movers, sustainable infrastructure, green streets, improved property values, reduced utility bills and, quite simply, greatness!......

Capitol Records wanted to leave it's iconic Hollywood building and turn it to condos back in 2006. But then the city said "no, you're so special to us, stay and prosper and keep the cultural economic engine of Los Angeles going." So Capitol agreed, but now this: "Capitol Records believes that the planned construction of a 16-story building and 240 car underground garage at 6230 Yucca Street (old KFWB radio building), will interfere with and......

As you drive "over the hill" from the Valley to Hollywood along Laurel Canyon Blvd., there's a sign there asking for donations to save some plots of land from development. No, it isn't a citizens' group or a non-profit for wilderness, it's a government agency. "Donated funds needed immediately to save these six acres under option by part agency," it reads. In a cash-strapped time for governments, the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority is asking......

Starting last month, the Beverly Hills City Council voted to approve a series of amendments to city ordinances and laws, including the General Plan -- the bible of city planning. The changes were set to help pave the way for the Waldorf-Astoria hotel and condos, which will replace the current Beverly Hilton with a 170-room, 12-story hotel and an additional 110 condos that are said to be each sold for an average of $5.6 million......

In January, Los Angeles City Councilman Eric Garcetti announced that City Hall and other downtown facilities would provide bicycle lockers, more racks, access to showers and a subsidy to City Hall staffers who ride a bike to work. Yesterday, Garcetti blogged that they have already won an award, the Rideshare Diamond Award, for their efforts. In other bike facility news, the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition is hosting a bike/walk tour that is open to......

Photo by Adam Rose/LAist After last Friday's urban deforestation of 2nd and 4th Streets in Santa Monica (see photos of it happening here), Treesavers, who advocated to leave the trees as is, are holding an over night protest on the front steps of Santa Monica City Hall beginning tomorrow evening as City Council meets. The protest is "to demonstrate their sadness and anger with the City’s May 16 ficus tree chainsaw massacre along Second......

Oh, you've got to love rumors, especially those that both anger and please people, depending on who you're speaking with. This rumor comes via a report during the Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council* meeting last Monday night. During a Land Use Committee report, someone asked what the status was on the old Ventura Club building at Colbath and Ventura (just East of Hazeltine). Originally it was slated as a Walgreens, but after that got scrapped, the......

Photo by digablesoul via Flickr What is a slight inconvenience and change of habit to most people is freaking others out. Official as of yesterday, the Valley is getting a new area code, 747, that will overlay the proud 818 (come on, 747 is much cooler than the 310 overlay, 424). "I think it's too much. It's crazy," a Van Nuys resident told the Daily News. "I think people would feel much better if......

Starting in November, Los Angeles will begin enforcing a new ordinance, one that significantly reduce carbon emissions into the air. Today, the Los Angeles City Council voted to approve the new measure that will "reduce the use of natural resources, create healthier living environments and minimize the negative impacts of development on local, regional and global ecosystems." It will also... Lower more than 80,000 metric tons of carbon emissions in Los Angeles annually by 2012.......

So, which city is more eco-friendly when it comes to building codes? After reading the LA Times, San Francisco comes out the winner, but that's not to say Los Angeles is some black hole of environmental actions. Both Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom want their respective cities to be the greenest in the country (doesn't every mayor say they want that?). Villaraigosa wants to lower greenhouse gases to 35%......

Meet the future location of Studio Oaks Park where a grassroots effort is the only way this strip of unusable, rat-infested land will become a park. In Los Angeles, if you really want to get something done, you've got to take it upon yourself. In the southeast Valley, residents are doing just that.......

The East Valley is finally getting its art house/indie movie theatre starting tomorrow -- at least the digging and construction part, that is. And unlike the two other Laemmle Theatres in the Valley, the new attraction in the NoHo Arts District will be more transit friendly with the confluence of the Metro Red and Orange lines nearby. The movie theater is the final phase of the NoHo Commons project, which includes the already-built HOWS Market,......

Thanks to $100 million in money from a royal family of Dubai, the Frank Gehry residential and retail project along Grand Avenue is finally getting its go-ahead, months after delay due to worries of the economy, downtown's real estate market, project details and plan approvals. The first phase of the plan takes place directly across the street from Disney Hall where starting next month, crews will begin to dismantle the parking garage and lot, making......

A rendering of the Madrone, which will be built at Hollywood and La Brea Last night was the unveiling of Madrone's architecture and all 44 of the floor plans for the 180-unit development to potential condo buyers (Curbed was there too). Ranging from around $400K to over $1-million, the Madrone's primo Hollywood and La Brea spot is hot, considering that it is in a transit friendly neighborhood/corridor, LAXART will be curating outdoor art and......

Why should you watch this? Because this is happening all over Los Angeles, not just Del Rey. Curbed LA rightly called this video, done by neighbors opposing the proposted Louise Ave. building, "brilliant." This property is the focal point of the first lawsuit in Los Angeles regarding the density bonus bill, SB1818, a law that strips local municipal zoning codes and allows higher density with less restrictions (height, setbacks). And as Curbed explains, "it's......

Photo of the 605 Freeway by billaday via Flickr It's about time. As of today, NYC Streets Renaissance's StreetsBlog has officially franchised out to our city, that is, you know, duhhhh, full of streets and the love and hate of them. NYC Blogger Aaron Naparstek welcomes the LA Editor and so do we! LA.Streetsblog is edited and run by Damien Newton, formerly the New Jersey Coordinator for the Tri-State Transportation Campaign and a recent......

Photo by atomicshakespeares via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Suffering from an Oscar hangover? Then check out the next generation of hot filmmakers at The Beverly Hills Shorts Festival, which begins tonight and runs through the weekend. The studio that brought you such blockbusters as the "Lord of the Rings" franchise will soon become only the merest shadow of its former self: Warner Brothers will be absorbing New Line Cinema, which employs......

Photo by VirtualEm via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr An Urban & Environmental Planner friend of mine in New York City believes that when you build bigger and beefier streets, all you do is build increased traffic congestion. "Build it and they will come," he would say. Today, Steve Hymon in his weekly Road Sage column explores the subject by extension of the Pico/Olympic plan, where city officials are planning to begin......

Photo by Zach Behrens/LAist Remember when there was that big freak out in the Santa Clarita Valley? Six Flags Magic Mountain was going to close and quite possibly become torn down for more housing. Not good. The "extreme" roller coaster theme park is the single largest employer in the area, it fills up the hotels with tourists, adding green to the local economy and hey, it's an institution of the little Valley that could......

The City of Los Angeles is in the process of updating its Bicycle Master Plan, a component of the Transportation Element of the City’s General Plan. For the cycling community, this should be a joyous occasion, the opportunity to participate in the creation of a City Planning Department document that codifies the rights of cyclists and drives the development of a multi-modal city. But critics complain that the BMP Workshop process is obligatory at best......

Partying at The Standard Hotel's poolside | Photo by skampy via Flickr The City of West Hollywood's Planning Commission met the other night to discuss the Standard Hotel's request to extend their poolside hours to 1:30 a.m. from the current weekend midnight closing (closes at 10 p.m. on weekdays), keeping the hotel's poolside bar competitive with other Sunset Strip nightlife options. B-Side Blog attended the meeting to support the idea, but left the meeting......

Yellow = City of Santa Clarita, Blue = Las Lomas Project, Purple = Los Angeles | Source: City of Santa Clarita [pdf] We don't understand why no one wants the Las Lomas project, a proposed 5,500 unit/555-acre development, to be built between the 5 and 14 freeways just north of Los Angeles' border. Come on, how cool would it be to live between two freeways so close together! Not to mention two other freeways......