The photo at the top of The Eastsider's story was taken at Sanborn Avenue and Sunset Boulevard. You can see palm trees, cars in the intersection, storefronts, and the big "Welcome to Silver Lake – Sunset Junction" sign on the corner. The headline said the Sunset Boulevard road diet will make more room for buses and bikes and less for cars in Echo Park and Silver Lake. The story was last updated September 2, 2026.
The photo shows Silver Lake. The work is starting about a mile east of it. The Silver Lake end of Sunset is in the half of the project that has no funding and no construction date before 2030. That matters less for what happens on the corner next year, since nothing will. It matters more because the design Silver Lake is likely to inherit is being settled right now on a different part of the boulevard.
One project, two calendars
LADOT calls it the Sunset/Chavez Safety and Mobility Project. It covers about 2.5 miles of Sunset Boulevard and Cesar Chavez Avenue, from Fountain Avenue to Alameda Street, and the city has split it at Douglas Street. The proposal leaves one general traffic lane in each direction and uses the freed-up width for dedicated bus lanes and protected bike lanes.
| Sunset East, Phase I | Sunset West, Phase II | |
|---|---|---|
| Limits | Alameda St to Douglas St | Douglas St to Fountain Ave |
| Length | About 1.5 miles | About 1 mile |
| Funding | $15 million project | Unfunded |
| Status | Sidewalk and curb-ramp work underway | Needs more outreach and design |
| Construction | Expected to begin in 2027 | Planned for 2030 to 2032 |
| Street parking | 72% removed, including all north-side parking | No figure published |
The phase limits, lengths and "post-Olympics" timing for the west phase come from LADOT's Spring 2026 stakeholder presentation. The cost, the construction years and the parking figure come from The Eastsider. The two sources give slightly different dates for the east phase. LADOT's spring deck said 2026 to 2028, before the Olympics, and the later Eastsider report says construction should begin in 2027.
The parking number has spread fastest, and it needs care. The Eastsider applies the 72% removal only to the stretch between Douglas and Alameda. None of the reporting gives a parking figure for the blocks closer to Fountain Avenue, because that segment hasn't been designed yet.
Why the lane count is close to settled already
The west phase being unfunded doesn't leave its basic layout undecided. The Eastsider's follow-up on mixed reactions, published September 16, 2026, reported that one elected official said the lane reductions "weren't necessarily a matter of choice." According to Grant Bowlds, co-chair of the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council's Planning & Land Use Committee, the paper wrote, the reductions "may always have been in the cards." The article tied that to Measure HLA, which passed in 2024. As the article summarizes it, HLA requires the city to add bus lanes and protected bike paths whenever it improves more than an eighth of a mile of a street.
LAist's explainer describes the trigger the same way. When the city repaves at least an eighth of a mile of a street on a designated network, it generally has to install the upgrades in its Mobility Plan. LADOT's own presentation lists those minimums for this corridor: standard bike lanes, protected bike lanes, peak-hour bus lanes and removal of severe barriers. It also says the agency may go beyond them in response to public input.
That gives a clear rule of thumb. If Sunset West gets funded and built as a qualifying street improvement, protected bike lanes and bus lanes are the starting point. What stays open is how they're laid out.
The rule is clear on paper, but enforcement has been disputed. Streetsblog LA's two-year review in March 2026 found that only 300 feet of HLA-triggered improvements had been installed since the law took effect. The city's dashboard listed 78 projects, and the city treated 77 of them as exempt. A city ordinance that took effect August 18, 2025 created an appeal process. In April 2026, Streetsblog reported that the three most recent appeals it had covered were all denied, while advocates kept litigating over what kind of work triggers the law. For Silver Lake's mile, that puts more weight on whether money arrives and on how the city classifies the work than on whether bike lanes are allowed.
What is being decided a mile east
So the useful question now is what Sunset East settles. LADOT's September 24, 2026 weekly update says more than 150 people came to its in-person and virtual open houses in August for the Douglas-to-Alameda segment. Attendees supported safer walking, biking and transit. They also raised concerns about traffic and parking during major events at Dodger Stadium, and about commercial loading and access for small businesses. LADOT says this second round of outreach ends in spring 2027, when it presents a final design.
That final design will be the first finished version of this cross-section on Sunset. Choices about loading zones, parking and curb space will be made there first, in front of a much larger crowd than the eventual west-phase meetings are likely to draw.
The earlier survey shows what people asked for. The Eastsider reported more than 3,400 responses to LADOT's spring survey. Of those, 92% favored protected bikeways, 74% said they'd be more likely to walk with more shade and trees, and 63% said they'd be more likely to ride transit if service were faster and more frequent. The same report said local business owners put parking and loading zones first.
Owners along the corridor have said the same thing. In The Eastsider's coverage, Peter Steadman, co-owner of the Stronghold climbing gym, and Michael Glotzer, owner of The Hunt Vintage, raised concerns about business access, parking and traffic spilling onto neighborhood streets. Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez told the paper the project sits on the High-Injury Network, "just 6% of city streets that account for 70% of pedestrian fatalities and severe injuries." Bowlds made the case for the bus side:
"This plan actually reduces travel time for many more people than it increases travel time for. Even if you don't ride the bus, a lot of your neighbors do."
He said that in the mixed-reactions article. The buses in question are Metro's. Line 2 runs via Sunset Boulevard. Line 4 runs via Santa Monica and Sunset boulevards and has a stop at Sunset and Echo Park.
The closest preview is on Hollywood Boulevard
The nearest real-world example of one lane each way plus protected bike lanes is already on the ground, on the border of East Hollywood and Los Feliz. In an earlier report, The Eastsider described Hollywood Boulevard's road diet in exactly those terms. A council office spokesperson told the paper that "early indications show that the new streetscape on Hollywood Boulevard is already making the area safer for pedestrians, cyclists and drivers alike." The paper also timed a car taking almost seven minutes to cover a third of a mile, from Vermont Avenue to the east side of Virgil and Hillhurst. About two minutes of that was spent waiting at the Virgil signal. Shop owners there told the reporter about parking, storefront visibility and slower traffic.
Those are the trade-offs the Sunset East design is now weighing, and they will likely shape the Silver Lake mile by the time it comes up for funding.
Where Silver Lake has a say right now
The neighborhood's formal channel already has this project on its agenda. The Silver Lake Neighborhood Council's Transportation and Mobility Committee met September 24, 2026 at the Red Lion Tavern, 2366 Glendale Blvd. The meeting was in person only. Under old business, the agenda listed the Sunset/Chavez project with a review of a draft letter of support for the Governing Board. The agenda doesn't show whether the letter moved forward. The same committee's old-business list included:
- A Griffith Park Blvd traffic study
- Fargo / Rockford public stair access
- The Sunset Blvd/Cesar Chavez Safety & Mobility Project
LADOT is also still taking comments. Its Sunset project survey shows the proposed Sunset East design, and the September update links the open house slides and a recording of the virtual session. That survey covers Douglas to Alameda. It is the closest look Silver Lake has, so far, at the street it may get next.
If you're a Silver Lake owner trying to figure out how changes on Sunset could affect a home near the Junction, or how the timeline might come up when it's time to sell, Carolina Kramer keeps track of corridor projects like this one block by block. She's happy to walk through what's funded, what's planned and what's still only on paper.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
