No Plans to Sell Land, Residents Told : Housing Project Safe From Razing

The fears of some northeast San Pedro residents that their homes would be bulldozed were relieved this week when a Los Angeles Housing Authority official assured them that the city has no plans to sell the public land on which they live.

Leila Gonzalez-Correa, the agency’s executive director, told a meeting of about 50 residents that a San Pedro Chamber of Commerce proposal--called San Pedro 2000--to redevelop Barton Hills is “just wishing for the stars and moon . . . so you can put away your fears of the wrecking ball.”

She said federal laws regulating the disposition of public housing, such as the Rancho San Pedro low-income project in Barton Hills, require the consent of the residents be obtained before any sale can be made.

Renovation Program

The lengthy hearing process also requires that a finding be made that the public housing has become badly deteriorated, but in the case of Rancho San Pedro, she said, the Housing Authority has just completed a $6.5-million renovation program on the 479 units in that tract.

“If we had any intention of selling Rancho San Pedro,” Correa said, “it wouldn’t make sense to spend over $6 million fixing up these homes.”

At the conclusion of the meeting on Tuesday in the Toberman Settlement House, Correa hugged Eleanor Baldwin, president of the Rancho San Pedro Residents Council, and told her to stop worrying about the future.

“When I see people fighting for their homes, my heart goes out to them,” Correa said. “You are a determined, articulate group.”

The chamber unveiled its San Pedro 2000 plan in the fall of 1986. It generally proposed that Rancho San Pedro be torn down and replaced with new housing, that the rest of the Barton Hills neighborhood be rezoned for greater density and that a commercial strip be developed along Pacific Avenue, where portions of the housing project are located.

‘Social Engineering’

New low-income housing, in the form of multistory units, could be built in the immediate area, the chamber suggested.

However, the Toberman Settlement House, a social service agency in northeast San Pedro, condemned the chamber plan as “social engineering through the bulldozer . . . the wholesale removal of low-income people” from the community.

Howard Uller, Toberman’s executive director, hailed Correa’s intervention in the dispute as a victory for northeast residents. He said he hoped the city would work with neighborhood groups in further upgrading the Barton Hills area.

Leron Gubler, the chamber’s executive director, said the dispute over the San Pedro 2000 plan had generated “some hard feelings.”

But he said that when “the rhetoric cools off,” the chamber will be ready to work with Barton Hills residents on a long-range plan for the northeast side of town.