Expansion of Commercial Project OKd

This city took the first step in forming a new redevelopment project area along the Washington Boulevard corridor Tuesday when the Planning Commission, Redevelopment Agency and City Council each approved a revision of the project’s boundaries.

The expanded project area would include a commercial zone across the street from the Whittier Downs Mall at Washington and Norwalk boulevards, said Richard Weaver, city director of planning and development, who said the corner has good commercial potential.

The action--which adds about 12 acres to the original project area of 48 acres--came in a series of meetings that began with the Planning Commission approving the revised map and legal description. Then the City Council, meeting as the Redevelopment Agency, met and approved the same plan. The agency adjourned and reconvened immediately as the City Council. The whole process took 10 minutes.

Weaver said the city had to act quickly this week because city officials want to be able to win final approval by July. Between now and then, the city must comply with a number of state requirements that will take about seven months. Those requirements, Weaver said, include an environmental impact report, a redevelopment plan and other studies. The city wants to have the project set by July in order to use the current assessment year as the base year in figuring tax income for the area.

Last week the City Council decided that a project area committee was not required. Weaver said such a committee must be formed only if a substantial number of lower- and moderate-income families would be displaced by the project. There are only two residential properties within the boundaries, he said, and it is not expected that either will be displaced.

The city has been approached by several developers who have expressed an interest in developing the area but who are not willing to shoulder the costs of rehabilitation alone, Weaver said. By establishing a redevelopment project area, this will allow the agency to share some of the risk with developers by absorbing some of the costs for things like site improvements, or by acquiring land and writing down the price to a developer in exchange for a development the city wants, Weaver said. He said the agency eventually gets its money back through tax-increment funds and increased sales tax.

In the long run, Weaver said, the city wants to create a better-quality commercial center at the mall that would act as a catalyst to improve the run-down commercial areas along Washington Boulevard, which has the highest traffic volume in the city.

He said that besides the physical deterioration in the immediate vicinity of the mall, the general area has been in a commercial decline and is “far from its potential” in attracting customers. He said many of the buildings in the mall are empty and some are run down and substandard.