Beverly Hills Residents March to Deliver 3,200 Signatures

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 (Trader Vics is opening a downtown location). Many residents of Beverly Hills, already sick of traffic and congestion, are opposed to the dense project, which is slated for the city's most congested intersection. So yesterday, after a 20-day petition drive, LAist Photographer Tom Andrews followed as they marched to city hall and delivered around 3200 signatures to place the issue on the November ballot. If enough signatures are verified, the fate of the project will be left up to Beverly Hills voters.

Only needing around 2200 signatures, they gathered 3200 knowing that many signatures would be thrown out due to technical errors (ex., one mistake on an address could disqualify a signature).

The group was petitioning the General Plan Amendment Resolution, which would allow the project to have greater density and height. It was one of five pieces of legislation passed by the Beverly Hills City Council to let the project happen, but the Amendment Resolution gives the most authority. Since the document was around 2,200 pages, petition gatherers had to carry around the 16 pound plan to every household when going door-to-door. They delivered 59 boxes to the city clerk, who will deliver the petitions to LA County under an armed guard transfer next week. (Tom Andrews/LAist)

NEXT »

« PREVIOUS