Candidates Critical of Mayor on Development

Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley’s public opposition to a proposal that would allow the City Council to veto large-scale commercial developments was harshly criticized Saturday by a number of council candidates in Bradley’s home district.

The candidates for the vacant 10th Council District seat in the April 14 election accused the mayor of losing touch with his old constituents. The criticism came during a wide-ranging political forum sponsored by the NAACP.

Some of the 11 candidates who gathered at a Baptist church in Southwest Los Angeles lauded portions of Bradley’s broad policy statement on city planning--which he outlined Friday and which included recommendations to impose curbs on development.

Among other things, Bradley suggested forming neighborhood planning councils and reorganizing the city Planning Department, as well as limiting the mini-malls that have proliferated in Bradley’s old district and throughout the city.

Several 10th District candidates--who are vying for the seat vacated by Bradley’s successor, Councilman David Cunningham--disagreed openly with the mayor in his opposition to extending the City Council’s authority to control growth. As part of a 10-point, slow-growth plan introduced last December, Councilmen Marvin Braude and Zev Yaroslavsky had proposed giving the council power to veto any new commercial building containing 50,000 square feet or more, even when the planned buildings comply with the city’s zoning code.

The two councilmen were the authors of Proposition U, a ballot measure that limits commercial growth in much of the city and which voters approved overwhelmingly last November.

Their later plan, in a toughening of Proposition U, also would require public hearings and environmental impact reports for all future commercial buildings over 50,000 square feet.

Candidate Arthur Song said that if Bradley opposes those provisions then “the mayor has lost touch with the people in the 10th District.”

Another candidate, Kenneth Orduna, said he also disagrees with the mayor.

“The 10th Councilmanic District needs revitalization, we don’t need overdevelopment,” he said. “I’m against anyone that will say you don’t have the right of a citizen to sit up and look and have input on what is going up in our district.”

Like others, candidate Myrlie Evers said that she would like to see development projects reviewed on a case-by-case basis, but she added that “anytime we reach a point where the people of a district don’t have a voice and where they cannot come in public forum, then something is terribly wrong with the system.”

In opposing the veto suggestion, Bradley said the council’s involvement would disrupt the process of approving new construction and discourage building in the city. The mayor had opposed Proposition U, and the man Bradley has endorsed in the race--Homer Broome Jr.--said Saturday that the ballot measure was “anti-10th District.”

Broome said what local residents really need is a sound community plan and a “fair share” of dollars from the Community Redevelopment Agency to revive the area. But Broome declined comment on Bradley’s planning statements of Friday saying that he had not had a chance to review them.

Another candidate, Jessie Mae Beavers, voiced support for Bradley.

Other 10th District hopefuls at the NAACP forum--Geneva Cox, Denise Fairchild, Nate Holden, Esther Lofton, Grover Walker and Ramona Whitney--gave varying degrees of support for the public hearings and the council’s suggested veto authority.

The development issue has also emerged as a major issue in the 6th District, where City Council President Pat Russell is trying to retain the office she first won in 1969.

During a Friday night television taping, Russell’s five challengers took turns portraying the incumbent as someone who has encouraged overdevelopment in a district that includes Mar Vista, Venice, Westchester and much of the Crenshaw area. Russell denies the charge and said she has sought a number of controls on development, a contention disputed by her challengers--Rimmon C. Fay, Ruth Galanter, Salvatore Grammatico, Virginia Taylor Hughes and Patrick McCartney.

The hourlong cable television show will air Monday night and again on April 13 over Century Cable, Communicom and American Cablesystems.