Hollywood Renewal Panel Sets Election

After much bickering, the newly reconstituted citizens’ advisory committee for the $1-billion-plus Hollywood redevelopment plan has decided it will select its chairman and two other officers on Jan. 4.

THe choice of officers is expected to provide a first test for slow-growth advocates and their allies since a Nov. 16 election enhanced their strength on the 25-member panel.

Until the vote, pro-development forces, including the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, had dominated the committee since it was established in 1983.

Of the four members nominated for the chairmanship, two have been outspoken critics of the redevelopment plan.

Bennett Kayser, who as the head of a group called Save Hollywood, Our Town, won election to the committee last month, and Tommy Bush, a frequent adversary of the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency, have often criticized the plan.

Also nominated were Ted Kitos, appointed in 1985 by Los Angeles Councilman Michael Woo, and Edward Hunt, a landscape architect and residential property owner in the 1,100-acre redevelopment district. Hunt, who served as temporary chairman at Monday’s meeting, said he was “pleased that things ran relatively smoothly,” despite what he termed “some lapses in decorum.”

However, not everyone who attended the two-hour session, marked by frequent bickering between slow-growth members and their more development-minded opponents, shared his view.

“I don’t think you accomplished very much here tonight,” Chris Shabel, a spectator, said toward the end. “I think you need to get your act together.”

The Jan. 4 meeting will be held at First Presbyterian Church, 1760 N. Gower St., beginning at 6 p.m.