New Look for Sunset Strip : W. Hollywood Seeks to Lure Entertainment Firms With Revamped, Revitalized Boulevard

It was a lawless strip of town where movie stars and mobsters gulped drinks during Prohibition. Years later, flower children flocked to its electric nightclubs for a glimpse of Jimi Hendrix and other counterculture icons.

Now, the Sunset Strip is about to undergo its latest incarnation. This version calls for a chic and funky boulevard where pin-striped executives do power lunches in bistros and moneyed visitors fill the boutiques and hotels.

West Hollywood leaders hope an ambitious new development plan for the Sunset Strip will transform their signature street into an economic engine.

Architects of the blueprint, called the Sunset Specific Plan, envision posh new office complexes rising along the 1.2-mile boulevard, the result of zoning changes that will allow developers to build higher and denser than the city normally allows. In exchange, developers will set aside land for plazas and terraces where visitors can enjoy views of the Los Angeles Basin.

The city plans to woo movie companies, talent agents and other entertainment businesses to the proposed new buildings, creating a hub of activity on a thoroughfare that only a few years ago experienced an exodus of high-profile tenants, including Playboy Enterprises Inc.

“Nobody has ever accused West Hollywood of thinking small,” Councilman Steve Martin said. “We hope this will be the impetus to a renaissance.”

City officials are betting that their 20-year plan will help attract ever larger crowds to the historic roadway, a proposition that worries neighbors in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills who anticipate increased traffic and parking problems.

But those concerns have done little to dampen excitement in West Hollywood, where the City Council expects to adopt the blueprint by the end of the year, ending nearly five years of community planning.

The Strip already plays a significant role in the economy of West Hollywood, a square-mile city with a population of 36,000. Businesses on the boulevard employ more than 7,000 workers and generate three-fourths of the city’s hotel tax income and one-quarter of its sales tax revenue.

City leaders foresee an even greater tax windfall from the Strip in years to come. The additional money, they say, will help fund municipal services, particularly the vast net of social programs for which the city has become famous.

Last year, West Hollywood spent nearly a fifth of its budget--$6.4 million--on social services for residents, sponsoring programs such as housing for AIDS patients, job counseling for the unemployed and a community center for its large Russian immigrant community.

But there is another motive at work. The city hopes to guard against unwanted development such as strip malls that went up in years past, what one council member likened to the “Mutt-and-Jeff look.”

City leaders hope to create a more inviting atmosphere for pedestrians. Their plan envisions a relaxed shopping district where visitors stroll along widened sidewalks, rest in tree-lined courtyards and escape the sun in cool shelters along the roadway.

The new design, officials say, will complement a boulevard already known for an eclectic atmosphere that includes oversized billboards, outdoor cafes and Art Deco storefronts.

West Hollywood business leaders applaud the city for recognizing the Strip’s economic potential and say the plan may have surfaced at just the right time.

The Strip has been showing signs of a modest boom over the last 18 months. Several office buildings and hotels have undertaken major renovations, and the highly successful House of Blues nightclub has opened along with a few upscale restaurants.

“Sunset Boulevard is a sleeping giant,” said Charlie Mercer, president of the Sunset Strip Assn. and a Strip developer who is planning a chateau-style complex with stylish offices and penthouse apartments. “It’s worth every bit of effort the city has put forward.”

News of the city’s efforts also is beginning to spread through the local real estate market. Brokers who once bemoaned West Hollywood for its lack of modern office space say a revitalized Strip could help the city capture entertainment tenants that might otherwise choose Los Angeles or Beverly Hills.

“Any time I talk to clients about West Hollywood, the [Sunset Specific] Plan comes up,” said Chris Bonbright, a commercial broker whose clients include record companies and other entertainment businesses. “It is brilliant urban planning.”

The outlook on the Strip was not always so optimistic.

When the city incorporated in 1984, its founders pushed for slow growth, a reaction to years of lax county regulation that led to large office complexes rising nearly 200 feet, or 15 to 20 stories.

The city enacted a tough zoning code that limited the height of buildings to 35 feet, about three stories. The cap made it virtually impossible for large companies to accommodate their growing work forces.

As a result, some of the city’s biggest employers left town, courted by Beverly Hills and Los Angeles with promises of free rent and elegant accommodations. The new plan will allow buildings up to 100 feet, or eight to 10 stories.

“We couldn’t build what we wanted,” recalled Terry Prohaska, director of real estate for Petersen Publishing, which relocated to Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles about two years ago. “If the plan that West Hollywood is doing now was in effect then, we would have probably stayed and built our corporate headquarters there.”

The loss of key businesses--including Playboy and Warner Chappell Music Inc.--caused the city’s vacancy rate to rise and left officials pondering how to bounce back.

About five years ago, city officials and residents began discussions about the Strip’s future, a process that led to creation of the specific plan.

As the plan has evolved, so too has City Hall’s attitude toward growth. Officials say they now recognize the importance of a healthy business sector, and they have taken steps to ease regulations that had stifled development.

The plan, they note, attempts to streamline the planning process by creating one master environmental impact report for the Strip, relieving developers from the burden of conducting studies for individual projects.

“I think the city has matured,” said Dennis Holt, founder of Western International Media, a Sunset Strip business and one of the city’s largest employers. “They make you feel like they will listen.”

Holt almost moved his company to Beverly Hills 2 1/2 years ago but decided to stay in West Hollywood because of City Hall’s changing attitude. The company--which places advertising on billboards, television and radio--has expanded into its next-door neighbor, the 10-story Playboy building.

Critics of the city’s plan aren’t so fired up. They complain that the anticipated growth will bring additional traffic to an already congested area.

Earlier this month, Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Feuer met with West Hollywood officials over concerns that increased traffic could hinder access for emergency vehicles headed to homes in the hills north of the Strip.

West Hollywood officials say their plan attempts to reduce the impact of traffic partly by encouraging more public transportation and requiring developers to provide additional parking spaces. Still, the officials expect problems.

“Traffic is going to be miserable on Sunset no matter what,” Councilman Paul Koretz said. “[But] it won’t get to the point where people wait an hour to get through the Sunset Strip.”

Beverly Hills, meanwhile, has raised concerns of its own, asking West Hollywood to prohibit new nightclubs near its border on the western edge of the Strip.

In an effort to address such concerns, West Hollywood has limited the total amount of development for new clubs at 25,000 square feet, enough for about two venues.

Despite the varied concerns, West Hollywood officials call their plan a reasoned approach to the inevitable growth of Sunset Boulevard.

They note that the specific plan limits new development to 1.2 million square feet, about two-thirds the amount that otherwise would be allowed under the city’s general plan. Without the city’s guidance, the Strip might grow unchecked, creating far more serious problems, they say.

“Here’s this little city trying to preserve an asset that has international significance,” said Gay Forbes, the city’s community development director. “We’re setting an example for the rest of the world about how to do planning.”

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Updating the Strip

West Hollywood hopes to revitalize the Sunset Strip with a plan for new office buildings, plazas and courtyards to lure shoppers. In the areas shaded in red, office complexes will be allowed that are higher and denser than city codes allow, in exchange for developers setting aside open land for pedestrian- friendly plazas.