No to Community Redevelopment

Your article “Agency Takes First Steps for Galleria’s Expansion” (Glendale section, Aug. 20) shows that Glendale’s Community Redevelopment Agency has no respect for the rights of property owners.

In order to provide for expansion of the Glendale Galleria, the CRA intends to condemn several existing businesses on Brand Boulevard and Harvard Street without the consent of the owners, buy the land and then sell it for cut-rate prices to politically favored businesses.

This is blatantly unconstitutional. The Fifth Amendment states that private property shall not be taken for public use without just compensation.

It’s possible that the property owners will receive just compensation, but there is no public use involved. The property is being taken for private use. Public use would include a park, road or government building. If the developers who wish to expand the Galleria want more land, they should buy it themselves in the open market.

There is no public purpose to community redevelopment. It is basically a welfare program for politically powerful developers and should be resisted at every opportunity.

TED BROWN

Los Angeles