County Sues L.A. Over Hoover Redevelopment

Los Angeles County has filed a lawsuit seeking to prevent the city’s redevelopment agency from siphoning off money from under-funded county programs to subsidize the private development of a shopping center near USC.

At issue is the Los Angeles City Council’s approval in May of a plan to expand the Hoover Redevelopment Project. The subject of a bitter neighborhood dispute, the plan calls for the removal of homes to make way for a shopping center that includes a Boys Market.

County officials and other opponents contend that the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency is abusing its authority by subsidizing financially capable developers, condemning homes during a housing shortage and changing the face of a neighborhood that is not blighted and does not need redevelopment.

The lawsuit--filed by the county in Superior Court earlier this week--alleges that the city of Los Angeles is using redevelopment “to subsidize private development in an area which has and is already developing privately.”

A county official, however, said Friday that the county will drop the lawsuit if the redevelopment agency reimburses the county for the $900,000 in projected lost tax revenue from the shopping center project or if the project is abandoned.

Although the amount of money at stake is relatively small, the county projects that it lost $286 million last year to 60 redevelopment projects countywide--money that would have otherwise gone to the county.

The redevelopment agency receives any increases in property tax revenue brought about by inflation or redevelopment. The money is used to finance the agency’s activities. If there was no redevelopment project, the money would revert to the city, county and school districts.

That is why the financially strapped county Board of Supervisors, which runs hospitals and mental health clinics, has opposed Mayor Tom Bradley’s proposal to raise the spending cap for downtown redevelopment from $750 million to $2 billion.

Since 1984, the supervisors have challenged projects that divert tax revenue from the county to the redevelopment agency. In the end, the county usually attempts to negotiate an agreement under which the redevelopment agency reimburses the county for its lost revenue.

Suits Filed

But when negotiations break down, the county files suit.

A spokesman for the Community Redevelopment Agency said the lawsuit is merely part of the “horse trading” that goes on between the city and county over redevelopment. The spokesman, Robert Alaniz, said he believes that the agency is on sound legal footing and defended the agency’s involvement in the project, saying it will provide jobs to low-income residents of the neighborhood.