Redondo Majority Favors Scrapping Redevelopment

Redondo Beach officials say they intend to abandon a controversial proposal to redevelop many of the city’s commercial strips.

“The intention, obviously, of this group--and I believe that there is undoubtedly some support for it--is to kill this project at the earliest possible time,” City Councilman Ronald Cawdrey said at a meeting of the Redevelopment Agency on Tuesday.

Council members and Mayor Barbara J. Doerr serve as the Redevelopment Agency. All agency members supported studying the idea last April--after other city officials and a residents’ committee had researched the idea and made recommendations. The agency has already spent at least $60,000 studying the proposal.

Seen as Solution

City Manager Tim Casey, other officials and a few business owners have touted redevelopment as a way for the city and private business to improve deteriorating commercial corridors and nearby low- and moderate-income housing through grants, low-interest loans, rebates and other financing tools.

Redevelopment projects provide money for such improvements by allowing the agency to keep most of the money generated by higher property values--money that would normally go to the county.

Critics, however, said that Redondo Beach is not blighted and that businesses and homeowners should be left to improve their buildings on their own--without government help or interference. Many feared that the agency would use the power of eminent domain to take private property, even after the agency promised not to use that authority to take residential properties.

Delay, Then Demise

As public criticism of the plan grew, the agency postponed action on the proposal pending further study. And this week, Doerr and council members John Chapman and Kay Horrell--a majority of the agency’s members--said the project is unnecessary and they want it dropped.

Chapman said: “I think if all economic conditions in the country stay relatively stable over the next few years, Redondo is going to get a lot of development--probably more than the people in the city want to see.”

Horrell said she thinks the private sector may be able to solve the area’s problems. “I’m a firm believer that if the private sector can handle whatever development or whatever issue is at hand, by all means, that’s the way to go, and keep government out as much as possible.”

Under the most recent proposal, the redevelopment area generally consisted of the state beach; most of Artesia and Aviation boulevards; the City Hall complex; Veterans Park; Dominguez Park; the Redondo Union High School campus; Pacific Coast Highway between South Guadalupe Avenue and Anita Street; Catalina Avenue between Beryl and Anita streets and between Pearl and Diamond streets; two industrial areas--one in the northeastern corner of the city and one on 190th Street--and the Southern California Edison right of way that cuts across north Redondo.

No Residences Involved

The agency had said that it would take all residential properties out of the proposal, as well as all properties south of Diamond Street except the high school campus and the beach.

The Redevelopment Agency met Tuesday to discuss a feasibility report--prepared by a consulting firm for about $5,000--that outlined three variations of the initial proposal and the financial impact of each if adopted as a redevelopment project.

The presentation on the report was cut short, however, after members said they intended to abandon the proposal as soon as possible.

The agency could formally abandon the proposal next month. It could not vote to kill the project this week because the issue was not on the agenda, as required by the state’s open-meeting law.

Snow Favors Project

Of the Redevelopment Agency members, only Councilman Archie Snow spoke in favor of a redevelopment project. In an interview, he said he wants a redevelopment project implemented for at least the Artesia and Aviation boulevard corridors, which are in his 4th Council District.

“I had a district meeting . . . Oct. 10 and at the same time I sent out a questionnaire,” he said. “The response from my district was very positive.”

Cawdrey did not say at the meeting whether he wants the redevelopment study to continue, and he could not be reached for comment.

Chapman criticized the city staff, saying it was pursuing its goals instead of the council’s. He was upset that a variation of the redevelopment proposal, which he said the agency directed staffers to include, was not part of the feasibility report.

‘Upsets Me’

“I can only believe that it didn’t appear because it would have been detrimental to the financial viability of the overall project,” he said. “And I can only assume from that assumption that the staff wanted to continue this project, and that’s what upsets me the most.”

City Manager Casey, who serves as executive director of the agency, said city staffers and the consultant studied the variations they believed they were asked to examine.

Later in the meeting, he added: “Staff will accept the fate of this project whatever the decision of the majority of the agency may be. . . . This staff doesn’t purposely ignore direction nor contrive alternatives.”

The city has already spent between $60,000 and $100,000 in consultant fees on the redevelopment study, Casey said, and more money in municipal staffers’ time. If a redevelopment plan were adopted--which would take at least seven to 12 months--that money could be recouped, he said.