Council OKs $922-Million Hollywood Revitalization

A $922-million, 30-year attempt to halt the decay of once-glamorous Hollywood was approved Wednesday by the Los Angeles City Council--but not without one councilman’s complaint that public funds were being used to bail out private business interests.

The 1,100-acre Hollywood Redevelopment Project, second largest in the county after the 1,500-acre Bunker Hill development, will seek to preserve historic buildings, rehabilitate existing housing and spur new homes and commercial developments.

Councilman Michael Woo, who represents Hollywood, said the project is the first “concrete commitment” by the city to do something positive for a community beset by run-down buildings, a needy immigrant community and a crime rate double the citywide average.

The most controversial part of the plan is the Community Redevelopment Agency’s power of eminent domain. Many residents expressed fear at recent public hearings that the CRA will use that power to oust them from their homes.

Hollywood’s major commercial streets, at one time the glittering main boulevards of the thriving film capital, have been in their present seedy and run-down state since the 1960s, when the so-called “hippies,” homeless people, panhandlers, drunks, drug users and prostitutes began moving in.

Runaway teen-agers looking for film stars and excitement drifted along the littered sidewalks, taking shelter in vacant, rotting buildings such as the infamous “Hotel Hell.” They were discovered by pimps and pushers, but not by movie directors.

Over the last three decades there have been numerous efforts to revitalize Hollywood, launched with press conferences and publicity releases and little else. The names of the famous and not-so-famous have been embedded in stars in the sidewalk and some of the old landmarks such as the Hollywood Palladium are still there--but the big comeback has remained largely elusive.

Woo admitted in an interview that the clock cannot be turned back to the 1920s, ‘30s and ‘40s when Hollywood was the motion picture capital of the world. But, he insisted, “we can recreate an aura of the glamorous past within the context of a new community.”

The project will be bounded generally by La Brea, Franklin and Serrano avenues and Santa Monica Boulevard, encompassing the main commercial streets including Hollywood and Sunset boulevards.

37,000 Inhabitants

That area now is inhabited by 37,000 people whose average family income is $15,000 a year, compared to $26,000 citywide. About 46% of those residents are foreign-born, compared to only 27% citywide.

The project is scheduled to start two months after the second reading of the ordinance by the City Council next Wednesday. Work on the project is scheduled to continue for the next 30 years.

Donald W. Cosgrove, acting CRA administrator, said major development projects will not start for about a year because of a lag in the availability of tax-increment financing, under which any increase in taxes generated by a rise in property values is set aside to finance the redevelopment project.

Incentives Offered

The public funds are to be used for land acquisition, land clearing and rerouting and rebuilding of streets. Incentives are offered to private developers to add new buildings.

Woo, while refusing to discuss projects in detail, said that there are several under consideration in the community’s commercial district, including theaters, retail shopping and restaurants.

Councilman Ernani Bernardi cast the lone vote against creation of the project, criticizing redevelopment as a tool to finance private business with public funds.

“We don’t have enough money to fill in the chuckholes in the streets, to resurface the streets or to provide other basic services,” Bernardi said, “but we seem to have plenty to bail out private developers.”

Woo said that the alternative to creating the redevelopment project was to let Hollywood “deteriorate and rot.”

Social Service Fund

A special feature of the redevelopment plan will set aside 10% of the tax increment for social services, such as providing assistance to the homeless, elderly and other needy groups. Most redevelopment plans are limited to physical improvements.

Woo said he would see to it that the agency uses eminent domain powers rarely and judiciously, but refused to remove them as an agency tool.