Can you imagine a 44-acre park above the 101 freeway from Santa Monica Boulevard to Hollywood Boulevard? The above renderings offer a peek into the plan, and a generous donation today to Friends of the Hollywood Central Park (FHCP) has advanced the project closer to fruition.

Aileen Getty, granddaughter of John Paul Getty, has donated $1.2 million from the Aileen Getty Foundation to help fund the park's Environmental Impact Report (EIR)—a report that costs $2 million to conduct. Getty's overwhelming donation combined with the city's $825,000 contribution have fully funded the EIR.

"The Hollywood Central Park is all about building community and celebrating our commonality in a natural environment - an imaginative urban park built atop the Hollywood Freeway," said Getty in a release. "The Park will allow people of all ages to connect to each other and to nature. I am energized by the opportunity to support this project. I believe it is a vital link in creating greater quality of life in our city."

The idea for the park was born over 28 years ago and progressed from a Hollywood Chamber of Commerce initiative to a Hollywood Community coalition in 2006. The FHCP nonprofit was formed in 2008 and has since made funding the EIR its mission. Well, Friends, mission accomplished.

A release details the strategies and benefits of the park:

By adopting efficient alternative and innovative land use plans and integrating strategies in order to transform the community and create long term prosperity, the Park will produce more than 45,000 direct and indirect jobs, create a sustainable community which promotes equity, strengthens the economy, protects the environment, promotes a healthy and safe community and serve as a national model for the creation of new green space in a dense urban environment.

The park has already welcomed support from high places. In March 2012, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood gave the project an enthusiastic thumbs up.

— By Lauren Lloyd in News on August 22, 2012 2:00 PM