State map shows active fault line under proposed Hollywood skyscraper project

HOLLYWOOD (KABC) -- A new finalized version of a California earthquake map shows an active fault line running through Hollywood, raising questions about the Millennium Hollywood development project.

The fault line moves along the northern edge of Hollywood and it slices through an area where developers are hoping to build a pair of skyscrapers known as Millennium Hollywood.

"We now recognize that this fault is active," said Tim McCrink, a geologist with the California Geological Survey, the agency that prepared the map that delineates a general area where an active fault line exists.

"It has the potential to rupture some time in the future, and the best thing to do is to stay off the trace," said McCrink.

That doesn't mean that developers are prevented from building on the area designated on the map. It means that developers are required to do site-specific surveys to make sure the building is not sitting on top of the actual fault line.

"If we draw a line, like we have on this map, we're saying that it could be 50 feet either way. That's just map accuracy," said McCrink.

"We didn't find any active faults here, they don't exist here," said Mike Reader, the CEO of Group Delta, a consultant for the Millennium Hollywood group.

"The zone has to be drawn around a fault which is supposed to be active, but it doesn't prevent you from building in the zone. What it says is you have to do a report, and you have to turn it in to the local building department," said Reader.

Regardless, the groups that have been fighting against the Millennium Hollywood project say the state's finalized maps show that the site is not safe.

"I would say that the fault locations are maybe not precise to the inch, but they are very close," said Robert Silverstein, an attorney who has sued the city in an attempt to block the project.

"Millennium would be an island of instability, danger and peril to human life between these two faults," said Silverstein.

Reader says that the Millennium Project group will soon go before the city to present their findings showing that the site is not on top of a fault line.

Meanwhile, Silverstein says that he will move forward with his lawsuit to try to block the project.