One of the major roles of a chamber of commerce is to build a strong local economy. In the past decade, there has not been a time when the Chamber has been more active than now in pursuing that goal. With a committed corps of volunteers and a capable staff, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce is looking at the things that will keep our economy humming far into the future.

The Chamber's Community Plan Task Force, chaired by Marty Shelton on NAI Capital, has been encouraging the City to “beef up” the transportation element of the plan update. With the potential large infrastructure bond measures being put before voters later this year, we want Hollywood to be well-positioned to apply for those funds. Having a comprehensive transportation list of priorities will help us to achieve that objective.

The major capital improvement project on the congested intersection of Highland Avenue and Franklin is set to begin in June 2006. A portion of the funding for this critical project came from $3.2-million in relinquishment funds that the State has provided the City. The Chamber played a major role in lobbying to secure those funds.

This project is the first phase of resolving the problems at that intersection and deals primarily with northbound lanes. One important component of resolving traffic issues that still needs to be addressed is to widen Highland to allow two southbound lanes of traffic to turn west onto Franklin Avenue. When we discovered that no plans had been made for this eventuality, the Chamber organized a meeting between City officials and an important Chamber-member property owner. Those discussions are continuing and will hopefully result in a second phase to this project that will benefit both the businesses and residents of Hollywood.

It is no secret that Hollywood has one of the lowest parks-to-residents ratio in the City of Los Angeles. With more than 3,000 housing units in the pipeline, this is an important quality-of-life issue. One Chamber visionary is Don Scott of First Financial Bancorp., who is now heading up a chamber task force that is researching the possibility of capping a portion of the Hollywood Freeway to provide future recreation grounds for the community. Realistically, this is a long-term project, but by working on it now, who knows but that it may someday become a reality.

With all of the interest in building new housing in Hollywood, concerns have been raised by the Chamber that the employment base in Hollywood may be threatened if we do not plan for future commercial office users. The Community Redevelopment Agency has asked the Chamber to convene meetings on the topic of the Jobs/Housing balance in Hollywood. Earl Lestz of ESL Consulting and Elizabeth Peterson of the Elizabeth Peterson Group are the chairs of these meetings.

Maintaining a strong economy so that your business can prosper is a top priority for the Chamber. Rest assured that the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce is working to achieve that goal on your behalf.