Lawndale Scraps Plans to Survey Neighborhoods on Redevelopment

The Lawndale City Council, faced with community fears over plans to overhaul parts of the city, has agreed to scrap plans to conduct a survey of neighborhoods that could be included in a redevelopment area.

“Before any survey area is considered in the future . . . (the citizens) should learn what redevelopment is all about,” said Councilman Bill Johnson. “At that time, and only at that time, would a survey area be started.”

The move last Thursday came one week after dozens of Lawndale residents packed a council meeting to express their outrage that city officials had included 1,700 homes within the boundaries of the redevelopment survey area. The survey would have helped determine exactly which areas should be formally set aside in a redevelopment project area.

The city’s long-range goal is to revitalize parts of its aging commercial district by establishing a redevelopment area and attracting new businesses. It could use the law of eminent domain to condemn certain properties as part of the process.

Many Lawndale residents don’t want their homes included in any redevelopment area, out of fear the city could use the right of eminent domain to acquire their properties. The area that was to be surveyed included most of the city’s main commercial thoroughfares and homes on both sides of Hawthorne Boulevard.

City officials fear that the controversy over redevelopment could derail voter approval of the general plan, a blueprint for future development that calls for the creation of an urban village along Hawthorne Boulevard. The plan will go before voters for approval in April.

City officials have said they want to limit redevelopment to commercial areas. The council, however, had agreed to include some residential areas in the survey on the advice of the city’s consultant, Urban Futures Consultant Group, Councilwoman Carol Norman said.

“I’m just horrified by this,” Norman said last week over the realization that so many homes were included in the survey area, widening its potential impact. “I feel we’ve been led down the garden path.”

After deciding to scrap the survey, the council said it would take time to educate city residents about their rights under redevelopment before moving ahead with a new survey.

“I think in the long run it will benefit the city because everyone will know what is going on and there won’t be any surprises,” said Gary Chicots, the city’s community development director. “Once everyone understands (the purpose of redevelopment), I don’t think we’ll have a problem.”

In an attempt to head off opposition to the general plan, the council voted twice over the last several weeks to remove any references to redevelopment and eminent domain.

But Mayor Harold E. Hofmann and Councilman Larry Rudolph, who oppose the general plan, said that doesn’t go far enough. They argued that the council should have followed the recommendations of a citizens advisory group to prohibit the use of eminent domain under the general plan.

“What the people want is assurances that eminent domain will not be used,” Rudolph said. “If they would insert those magic words into the general plan, people would support it and you could put the whole city in a redevelopment project area and people wouldn’t care.”