Builders Should Install Sound Walls, L.A. Says

After years of fielding complaints about traffic noise from neighbors of the Hollywood Freeway, the Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday asked the Planning Department to require future developers of property beside any freeway to install walls or landscaping to buffer sound.

But because the action applies only to new homes built next to freeways, it will not help those who have fought hardest for city assistance: residents of 30 homes on the west side of Babcock Avenue in North Hollywood.

“Please don’t ignore us anymore,” said Bob Brice, who lives in one of the houses. “The name ‘city planning’ implies that somebody sat down and thought about what they were doing when they built 30 homes next to the freeway.”

State Department of Transportation experts concede that the freeway din on Babcock Avenue exceeds allowable levels. But because the homes were built after the freeway’s 1968 completion, the area is not eligible for state-funded sound walls.

Earlier this year, a semitrailer truck carrying hazardous waste careened off the freeway and into two of the houses, severely damaging them. Since then Caltrans has installed a freeway guardrail.

Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores agreed with the North Hollywood residents during Wednesday’s council meeting.

“I think it’s the city’s responsibility, if we give the permission to build homes where we know there are going to be problems,” she said.

In a concession to residents of Babcock Avenue and other existing neighborhoods, Councilman Joel Wachs asked the Planning Department to look into “creative solutions” for funding the sound walls. In the past, the department has maintained that the only option is for residents to pay for the walls themselves, by forming an assessment district.

r Wachs also asked the city attorney’s office to determine whether noise levels at homes on the east side of Babcock Avenue, which predate the freeway, also would exceed allowable levels if it were not for the sound buffer provided by the newer homes on the west side of the street. If that is the case, he said, then perhaps the city can argue with Caltrans that the newer homes deserve a state-funded sound wall, because their construction saved the state from having to build a wall to shield the homes across the street.

During earlier committee meetings on the subject, council members expressed concern that the cost of requiring walls in new freeway-adjacent communities would be passed on to home buyers in the form of higher prices. At the Planning and Land Use Management Committee level, Councilman Hal Bernson suggested that the Planning Department be allowed to review the need for the walls on a case-by-case basis.