Not long ago, the legendary "CBS Television City in Hollywood," which was not really in Hollywood, was sold and largely shut down. I hear there are still some tapings (which are not really on tape) there but most or all of the offices have been vacated, most of the studios are like ghost towns, The Price is Right is being done at an old warehouse out in Glendale, etc. It's just a matter of time before the entirety of what was CBS Television City is displaced by a new, gigantic complex that will combine offices, television studios and retail outlets.
Folks who live nearby (Full Disclosure: I am one) are concerned that what's planned is waaaay too big for that piece of real estate, especially given that traffic is already bad with what's there now. The plans of the developer, Hackman Capital Partners, have been scaled down a bit due to the objections of locals but there is currently a crusade to get them to scale back more…a lot more.
No one, as far as I can see, is objecting to them redeveloping and expanding the facility. I'm not sure in this town, anyone could. There seems to be an understanding that the needs of everyday citizens must never get in the way of someone making a movie or a TV show. If someone wants to shoot a film on your street, there will be only minor controls placed on how many roads they can close, how much noise they can make, how much they can complicate your access to your property. A year or two ago, just a few blocks from me, some movie was setting off explosives in the street.
The film/TV production company will always get most of what it wants because, you know, they're good for the economy. Never mind that you can't get to work.
I have no doubt Hackman Capital Partners will get all or most of what they want and I strongly suspect the original proposals for all developments of large scope are drawn up to include sacrifices. They want what they're building to be the size of Mars so they announce it'll be the size of Venus. Locals will protest, the company will agree to cut their plans down to the size of Mars and the protesters can be satisfied with that seeming "win." You know how that works.
According to the protesting group in this matter — The Neighbors for Responsible TVC Development — the plans for the corner of Fairfax Avenue and Beverly Boulevard where TV City is/was currently call for a facility of 1,724 million square feet. The protesters are calling for Hackman to eliminate — this is how the group describes it — "a whopping 550,000 square feet of office space unrelated to studio operations." There will be a public hearing tomorrow about this.
I'd go and try to say something if I could but as you know, I'm kinda confined to my home at the moment. I'm going to "attend" instead via Zoom and if you want to learn more about all this, this is the website of the group.
They believe as I do that the current plans are just too friggin' big for an area where traffic ground to a standstill just with James Corden and some actors running out into the intersections to do snippets of his Crosswalk Musicals. I hate to think what adding thousands of drivers trying to get to work there every day will do. If it was all built now, I might not be the only person in the area physically unable to leave his home.