Padilla Seeks Delay in Valley Redevelopment

In an unexpected shift, Los Angeles City Councilman Alex Padilla said Tuesday that he will seek a two-year delay of a massive redevelopment project planned for the northeast San Fernando Valley, questioning the city redevelopment agency’s competence for the job.

Advocates say the project--twice the size of the city’s largest current such endeavor--would bring much-needed improvements to communities that have been underserved for years. But opponents say the proposal would control too much land and push out local merchants and residents, while wasting tax dollars.

Tumultuous negotiations on the proposed 6,835-acre project climaxed with a fistfight during a citizens advisory panel meeting three weeks ago.

Padilla, once a champion of the project, said he changed his stance because of the way the Community Redevelopment Agency had responded to questions from community members. He said he will introduce a motion at today’s meeting of the council’s Housing and Community Redevelopment Committee, requesting a moratorium on all further CRA activity in his 7th District, which includes Pacoima, Sylmar, Sun Valley and Arleta.

“This is a project with an agency that is not ready to move forward,” said Padilla, who until now has supported massive city redevelopment in his district. “Until I have confidence that [the CRA] has the ability and we see they can do this job, I will not allow them in my district.”

Don Spivack, deputy administrator of the CRA, said the agency is fully capable of carrying out the project successfully but added that the CRA could support a limited moratorium that permits the planning process to continue.

“I don’t think there is a question that we need to take as much time as we need so that residents and Councilman Padilla are comfortable with the project,” he said. “I don’t think he’s uncomfortable with the CRA itself, just the project.”

Padilla has been accused of trying to limit input from area residents, who say he sought to seize control of the elected Project Area Committee.

Padilla said that the project has become mired in politics and that a delay will give him the chance to work with a new mayor and possibly new leadership at the CRA, plus providing a clearer picture of how the Valley secession issue will play out.

“The original redevelopment plan was well-intentioned, but it wasn’t planned very well,” Padilla said of the proposal, which was first unveiled in 1998, before he took office. “I still believe in the concept of redevelopment. I just don’t believe in the agency handling it.”

Two of three committee members must approve Padilla’s motion for it to reach the full council, which could approve or reject it. Councilman Nate Holden, who sits on the panel, said that he thinks Padilla’s attempt to shut out the CRA is wrong but that he will vote for the motion anyway. “It’s his district,” Holden said.