LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles residents living near the iconic Hollywood sign have filed a public nuisance complaint over what they describe as out-of-control tourist activity that has turned the area adjacent to the landmark into a “public toilet.”
Multiple residents of Hollywood Hills neighborhoods filed a complaint Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court against the city of Los Angeles, Mayor Karen Bass and City Councilwoman Nithya Raman, alleging that officials have allowed the area near the sign to become a public nuisance.
State law defines a public nuisance as “anything which is injurious to health, … or is indecent or offensive to the senses, or an obstruction to the free use of property, so as to interfere with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property, or unlawfully obstructs the free passage or use, in the customary manner, of … any public park, square, street, or highway.”
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According to the complaint, residents have cited illegal street vending and dumping, along with “public urination and defecation that occur regularly on the City’s property.” They also point to increased traffic on surrounding streets and what they describe as an unacceptable risk of devastating fires and gridlock that severely limits their ability to leave their homes.
Visitors, they say, routinely smoke cigarettes and throw their cigarette butts into the grass, despite prohibitions against smoking and the significant fire hazard it poses. Likewise, if a fire were to break out — as has happened in the past — increased traffic could prevent fire trucks from reaching their destinations.
Residents allege that the city is liable because it controls the land where the nuisance conditions exist. They claim the city has actively promoted the area to tourists for years while failing to take reasonable steps to control the impact of increasing numbers of visitors and vendors, as well as the numerous nuisance conditions and safety risks.
They also cite increasing obstructions on the narrow neighborhood streets and other blights that they say are “indecent and offensive to the senses.”
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Fox News Digital reached out to Bass and Raman for comment. Raman represents City Council District 4, which includes the Hollywood Hills.
The impact of a glut of tourists visiting the Hollywood Hills has long plagued the area, creating safety and quality-of-life concerns for residents.
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“This was a problem 20 years ago—tourists driving into the Hollywood Hills to take pictures of the Hollywood sign or hiking up to it after driving as close to the sign as possible,” former Hollywood United Neighborhood Council board member Chuck Suhayda told Fox News Digital. “It caused massive traffic jams and parking problems.”
Suhayda served on the board for more than a decade.
Access to what is known as the Hollywood Hills Neighborhoods — which includes Hollywoodland, Lake Hollywood Estates and Hollywood Knolls — is restricted by the area’s geography. The roads are winding, lack sidewalks and average only about 18 feet in width.
The over-saturation of tourists and the corresponding hazards were exacerbated in September 2011, when a “viewing site” of the sign at the intersection of Canyon Lake Drive and Mulholland Highway was cleared of brush on both sides of the street by Council District 4 staff. The goal was to promote tourism by creating a site now known as “Hollywood Sign Lookout.”
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The area is zoned as open space and separates two residential zones designated for single-family homes. Residents say it has since become inundated with tourists, illegal street vendors and crippling traffic, leading to increased congestion on surrounding streets.
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In its own documents, the city has admitted that the current situation is “unsustainable.” However, residents say officials have ignored the city’s role in promoting Lake Hollywood Park, the viewing site and even the Hollywood Hills Neighborhoods, which they describe as landmarks in their own right—not only because they offer views of the Hollywood sign, but also because of their iconic architecture, steep landscapes and vistas of the Los Angeles basin.