Larger Renewal Rebuffed
A citizens advisory committee has recommended that the City Council reject a plan to add 305 acres to the city’s redevelopment district along Firestone Boulevard. Nine of the 17 members of the Project Area Committee considering the so-called Amendment 4 to Downey’s 125-acre redevelopment district voted against the expansion.
PAC member Guy Sterner, who introduced the motion to reject the plan, said healthy development is occurring along Firestone Boulevard and the proposed redevelopment area is unnecessary. Two weeks earlier, the PAC voted to strip the city Redevelopment Agency of its power of eminent domain if the expansion was approved.
In light of the PAC recommendation, the five-member City Council must approve the redevelopment area by a two-thirds majority instead of a simple majority, said Jim Cutts, director of community development.
But the requirement will have no effect because Mayor James S. Santangelo, who owns property in the existing redevelopment area, has consistently disqualified himself from votes on the plan and three votes for approval would have been required anyway.
The City Council is scheduled to hold a public hearing Tuesday on Amendment 4 in the City Council chambers at City Hall.
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