Slow-Growth Forces Win in Hollywood Renewal Vote

Slow-growth advocates and their allies are expected to take control of the advisory committee for the $1-billion-plus Hollywood redevelopment plan after Monday’s election for the Hollywood Project Area Committee.

Chamber of Commerce President Bill Welsh made no bones about his disappointment: “We’re going to have to learn to work as a minority.”

Welsh and his development-minded allies had controlled the committee since it was established in 1983.

Although the panel’s authority is largely advisory, a majority opposed to rapid development could hire independent counsel, seek to amend the Hollywood Redevelopment Plan and intervene in lawsuits designed to slow the 30-year project.

Outpolled by Opponents

Welsh himself barely won reelection as the representative of the Chamber of Commerce, while two groups that campaigned against the chamber won more votes than he did in a race among 12 organizations for three areawide seats on the Project Area Committee (PAC).

Ten other seats were also up for grabs in separate balloting: Two for residential property owners, three for residential tenants, three for business owners or operators and two for the manufacturing, industrial and warehousing sector.

By one count, there could be as many as 10 votes for slower development when the new PAC holds its first meeting on Dec. 14, with eight votes for the chamber and its allies, six swing votes and two vacancies. The chamber previously had as many as 13 members on the PAC.

However, the membership of the board could change again if Councilman Michael Woo wins approval from the City Council for his proposal to appoint six more members to the Project Area Committee. He now appoints four of the 25 committee members.

Woo asked for the changes after critics charged that the dominant business interests on the current PAC have been working closely with redevelopment officials in order to profit from an expected increase in land values.

After Monday’s hourlong election, slowed by a cumbersome process of checking identities and initialing rosters to rule out double-voting, Bennett S. Kayser of a group called Save Hollywood Our Town came in first in the areawide voting with 94 votes out of a total of 514.

Doubled Turnout

The total was about twice the turnout of last year’s controversial election, which was marred by charges of improprieties.

“We are not seeking to stop Hollywood’s revitalization,” said Kayser, who is also the president of the Federation of Hillside and Canyon Assns., a group of 40 homeowner associations including 12 in the Hollywood Hills.

“We want to see redevelopment happen in a fair and orderly fashion, with the rights of those who might be displaced by eminent domain or eviction carefully guarded and with the town’s historic characteristics preserved,” Kayser said.

“We want problems like awful traffic and inadequate utilities solved and improved before giant developments are built that will make those conditions worse,” he said.

Douglas Carlton, running for a organization called Keep Old Los Angeles, won 89 votes, while Welsh had 76.

‘More of a Heart’

“I was surprised tonight,” said Carlton, a lanky actor who had made a name for himself as long ago as 1976 as a defender of old buildings threatened with demolition.

“They (the PAC) will have more of a heart now,” Carlton said. “They’ll care more about the preservation and restoration of Hollywood. They’ll care about tenants, they’ll care about the homeless. They’ll get the money signs out of their eyes.”

“Developers can develop, but they have to be able to have a little heart,” he said. “I’ve got my fingers crossed that way.”

The announcement of the first- and second-place finishers in the voting for community organizations was greeted by cheers.

“It doesn’t take much to set off this group,” said Albert Markoff, an incumbent PAC member who was reelected to represent manufacturing interests. “Every time you use the words eminent domain you get five votes.”

Loud Booing

But there were loud boos when Rusty Kostick of the League of Women Voters, which supervised the election, read the total for the Chamber of Commerce.

“I’m sure they (the new majority) are going to disagree with the plans that many of us believe in for the improvement of Hollywood, for their own good reasons,” Welsh said.

“I hope that we can all put aside our animosities, because if we don’t, we won’t contribute anything to the improvement of the community and we’ll be a laughingstock of the rest of the city,” he said.

Kayser made a similar point, saying that the requirement to complete some plans by May, 1988, means that “we can’t go back to Square One.”

The league was called in to run the election because charges of ballot box-stuffing surfaced after last year’s voting. That election was conducted by staffers of the Community Redevelopment Agency, which presides over redevelopment of the 1,100-acre project area.

No Serious Incidents

This time the balloting proceeded without serious incident, although Felita Waxman, who organized the election for the league, said, “It’s messy. It’s always messy when there are this many candidates.”

She shrugged off a subpoena that was served on her in the foyer of the school auditorium, saying jokingly in Yiddish, “ Folg mich a gang ,” a phrase that roughly translates as “Of all things!” or “What do you think of that!”

The subpoena called on her to appear at the forthcoming trial of a lawsuit lodged by Save Hollywood Our Town. The group is seeking to overturn Hollywood redevelopment on the grounds that it was carried out without genuine citizen involvement in order to benefit big business, a charge denied by officials of the Community Redevelopment Agency.

“I hinge everything on that lawsuit,” said Brian Moore, a former member of the PAC who represented homeowners in the hills north of the project area.

“If we lose the lawsuit, we’ve lost Hollywood,” he said.

Suit to Continue

Kayser said the group would go ahead with its suit despite his victory. “If the election is invalidated, we can run again,” he said.

Despite the subpoena, he gave credit to the League for conducting an orderly election.

“People are carrying around only one ballot tonight, which is a great improvement over last time,” Kayser said.

Waxman said 50 league volunteers helped police the election, which cost about $6,000 for printing, mailing and other fees, including a donation to the league that Waxman described as nominal. The costs were paid by the Redevelopment Agency.

Among the losers in the voting for community service organizations was the Hollywood YMCA, whose executive director, Norris Lineweaver, served as chair of the outgoing PAC and was a strong proponent of the redevelopment process.

Lineweaver did not run this time, saying that he would rather devote his time to his family and to the needs of the sorely pressed YMCA, which is one of the major providers of social services in the Hollywood area.

Fallen Incumbent

Another incumbent who failed to win reelection was business representative Doreet Rotman, founder of the Hollywood Boulevard Merchants Assn. and a vocal supporter of increased funding for child care and help for homeless people and runaways as part of the redevelopment process.

“I’m worried that the real people will be left out of the plan,” said Rotman. “If they forget that, we will not be building a community, we will be building a ghost town. . . . The people of Hollywood lost along with me.”

New members of the PAC include John J. Walsh, a school teacher representing residential tenants in the area northeast of Sunset Boulevard and Vine Street; Paul Michael Schell, an actor representing tenants southeast of Sunset and Vine, and Scott Halper, representing tenants in the southwestern quadrangle of the project area.

“I will do everything within my power to see that the affected residents dominate the PAC as the Legislature intended,” Halper said.

Other new PAC members are Elaine Koenig, representing residential property owners in the area northwest of Sunset and Vine, and Norton Halper, Scott Halper’s father, a residential property owner in the southwest quadrant.

Concerned With Threats

“I am extremely concerned with the effects that the present plan will have on the community: the threat of eminent domain and the favoring of large outside developers,” Koenig said.

“The redevelopment of Hollywood could be a very positive thing if government entities like the (Community Redevelopment Agency) are kept in check,” said Halper.

The new business representatives are Nyla Arslanian, vice president of an entertainment and public relations firm, Michael C. Dubin of the Kornwasser and Friedman development firm and Stoney I. Ishimizu, a Hollywood Boulevard importer and retailer.

Arslanian, who is filling a seat vacated by her husband, Oscar, said she was impatient with the pace of Hollywood redevelopment since the process began four years ago.

“The most sensational developments have been dissension and I find that unfortunate,” she said.

Bringing In Expertise

Dubin, whose firm is behind the proposed Hollywood Galaxy complex of movie theaters, fast-food outlets and an outdoor stage, said, “We feel we can bring to the PAC an area of expertise and viewpoint that others couldn’t offer.”

He said there would be no conflict of interest because the PAC has already approved the Hollywood Galaxy project.

Ishimizu said that he would seek to make sure that development is spread out across the project area and vowed to “review all collective interests and try to negotiate a favorable agreement for all parties involved.”

In the voting for representatives of the manufacturing, industrial and warehousing sector, incumbent Markoff, a record industry executive, was returned to office on the first ballot.

A tie for the second seat required eight subsequent ballots before incumbent Jack V. Goodman stepped aside in favor of Herbert A. Beck, owner of a film and audio recording company.

Charges Denied

Project manager William A. Kellar denied charges during the election campaign that the Community Redevelopment Agency worked with sympathetic members of the incumbent PAC to railroad Hollywood redevelopment.

“There have been some charges that the present PAC does not constitute a representative of the area,” he said. “No one has been able to prove that, and it’s just unfair to the people who have been sitting on the PAC all year.”

Although he said that Redevelopment Agency commissioners have final authority to make decisions, Kellar promised that the agency would be responsive to the PAC regardless of who sits on it.

“The agency does listen to them,” Kellar said. “They are there for a purpose, and we do our best to explain what’s happening. I might even try to find out why they’re against a project, whether it’s a design problem or a construction problem and attempt to resolve it.”

His comments came before Monday night’s election. “It’s going to be interesting,” he said afterwards.

“It has the potential of being a good PAC. I’ve been involved with a lot of PACs, and people who have a history of being on the outside and pointing fingers change their perspective sometimes when they’re on the inside and they have more information.”