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It\u2019s too early to say if the novel fundraising campaign to save the privately owned land next to the Hollywood sign known as Cahuenga Peak has been a success.<\/p>\n
Last week, preservationists covered over the Hollywood sign with a banner reading \u201cSave the Peak\u201d to help raise public awareness and the $11.7 million needed to buy the 138-acre tract and prevent its development. <\/p>\n
Tim Ahern, spokesman for the San Francisco-based Trust for Public Land that is seeking to purchase the land, said that new fundraising numbers would be released Tuesday.\u00a0 So far, the nonprofit said it has raised more than half of the money needed and has until April 14 to come up with the rest.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve gotten enormous response,\u201d Ahern said. \u201cWe need everybody right now.\u201d <\/p>\n
City Councilman Tom LaBonge, who represents the area around the peak, called the trust after private owners of the land announced plans to develop it for luxury housing.<\/p>\n
"We’ve all got to pitch in," LaBonge said last week. "I was as surprised as anybody to find out we didn’t already own that parcel."<\/p>\n
If the trust is unable to purchase the peak and give it to the city, the acreage will go back on the market. Real estate agents for Fox River have speculated that wealthy overseas buyers eager to take advantage of the soft U.S. dollar — perhaps from China or the United Arab Emirates — might snap up the peak.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n