LOS ANGELES—The Los Angeles community may not be as excited about the development activity as some developers have led us to believe. The Coalition to Preserve L.A., led by Michael Weinstein of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, is looking to push through the Neighborhood Integrity Initiative, a ballot measure that would require developers to stick to the general plan without exemption. According to a poll conducted earlier this month, 72% of Los Angeles residents would support such a poll.

"In the Hollywood area where our offices are headquartered, there are nine projects with zoning exemptions and a lot of these are mega developments, but there are also issues in Koreatown, Miracle Mile, Downtown and across the city," Weinstein tells GlobeSt.com. "It is really difficult for individual community groups to challenge these projects because there are so many of them and they are so outgunned by developers. We felt the need to be a citywide solution. The whole idea of plot zoning is an oxymoron. The whole idea of zoning is that you have a zone, not that each individual plot has its own rules. The things that make city wonderful is that there is a character and a fabric of communities rather than helter skelter development."

Weinstein notes that the biggest single issue is the congestion and traffic issues that result from these major developments. "People are horrified by the degree of traffic congestion and how these developments are changing the character of the community," he says. "We are going to put up billboards that say 'Stop Manhattanwood.' This is not the California lifestyle that people were seeking when they moved here."

While the campaign has been focused in the group's Hollywood home base, Weinstein says that this is a citywide effort. "We are still in the process of doing a lot of the grassroots organizing. Most of the mega projects that have been stopped are here in Hollywood, like the Millennium project and the Sunset Gordon project; the Target, but it certainly applies to other areas of the city." However, he is quick to explain that the coalition isn't anti-development, only against the exceptions and plot zoning. "All we are asking for is that they stick to the general plan, which would not prevent a lot of projects that don't require exceptions," he adds.