Panel Votes to Postpone CRA Project

A Los Angeles City Council committee voted Wednesday to put the brakes on an ambitious redevelopment project in the northeast San Fernando Valley, approving a motion to disband the elected group that oversees the program.

The committee’s action is likely to put an indefinite hold on a plan to put 6,835 acres in a redevelopment area for developers to buy and build on blighted properties. But it will not kill the proposal.

Placing most of the blame on the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency, Councilman Alex Padilla said he lacked confidence that the agency would adequately supervise the project, and said the CRA was “not ready to take on the job.”

Wednesday’s vote by the council’s Housing and Community Redevelopment Committee follows several weeks of tumult within the northeast Valley community and among Project Area Committee members who were elected to oversee the project. Earlier this month, the PAC voted to disband after failing to end divisive bickering over the proposal.

The full council is expected to approve both of Padilla’s motions, to dismantle the Northeast Valley PAC and to remove the potential use of eminent domain on residential properties in the project. On the committee, Councilmen Nick Pacheco and Nate Holden voted for both motions; Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg was absent.

CRA Administrator Jerry Scharlin did not address the council panel, but after the meeting he said Padilla’s comments were “a little unfair” and described redevelopment projects as a lightning rod throughout the city.

“This is a very difficult political environment with secessionists and naysayers,” Scharlin said. “It’s truly an area that needs help, but instead of focusing on that issue, it becomes a political football.”

CRA officials believe this would be the first time a PAC has been disbanded before a redevelopment project was approved by the City Council.

A dozen people spoke at Wednesday’s hearing, with those for and against Padilla’s motions roughly evenly split in the audience.

Caron Caines, the PAC chairwoman and an attorney at San Fernando Valley Neighborhood Legal Services, said she watched as her group’s meetings eroded into bitter disagreements, even one fistfight, with little progress made on the project. She thought the committee, on which she has served since 1997, should be dissolved.

But another PAC member, Arthur Sweet, from the Sun Valley Chamber of Commerce, saw the PAC as the first step toward improving blighted areas--and suggested focusing on four or five smaller sections of the northeast Valley instead of a broader area.

Despite those concerns, Padilla was confident the proposed project “still would remain one of the largest redevelopment areas in the city.”

Before voting, Pacheco stood firm about the committee not using the word “moratorium” in its recommendation to the council, because he said the influential Valley Industry and Commerce Assn. wants all CRA projects halted while a secession study is being conducted.

“I think that is crazy,” Pacheco said. “I think the city should continue doing its good work in the other areas that have been benefiting from redevelopment projects.”

Secession concerns, Padilla said, did play a role in his decision to delay the project because redevelopment might complicate the process of municipal divorce.

On that issue, a VICA official said its organization viewed the CRA’s projects as possibly hurting the secession study underway. No current legislation allows the transfer of debt or revenue from a redevelopment project to a newly formed city, said Scott O. Schmidt, VICA government liaison director.

“Until this issue is resolved, we don’t want to go indebting citizens of Los Angeles or a new city,” Schmidt said.