Wilmington Residents Press Agency on Industrial Park Redevelopment

Inspired by discussions with Hollywood anti-redevelopment activists, Wilmington community leaders Wednesday pleaded with the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency to carefully consider how industrial development is affecting residential neighborhoods.

“We support the revitalization in the industrial park,” Peter Mendoza, president of the Wilmington Home Owners, told CRA commissioners, who met at a union hall in Wilmington. “But at the same time, (the park’s growth) does have an impact on our community.”

Mendoza added his cautionary note after the commissioners received a favorable progress report on the 232-acre Wilmington Industrial Park, established as a redevelopment district 15 years ago to cure blight and create jobs.

The park, which is about 25% completed, attracted little notice from local homeowners’ groups until Wednesday. That recent lack of attention likely would have continued, had it not been for Hollywood residents who are battling the CRA’s plans for redevelopment in their neighborhood.

Network of Residents

The Hollywood and Wilmington residents met recently at a conference attended by community leaders from all over Los Angeles. Tuesday the Hollywood residents--who keep close tabs on the CRA--learned that the commissioners were meeting in Wilmington and alerted Mendoza and the others, who said they would not have attended otherwise.

During the CRA meeting, Hollywood resident Norton Halper publicly urged Wilmington residents to be skeptical of the CRA and to act as a watchdog over the agency.

Halper and others fear that in Hollywood the CRA will use its powers of eminent domain to buy up residents’ homes in order to make room for redevelopment.

This is not a threat in Wilmington, where the CRA is helping to develop land that is vacant. There is talk, however, of expanding the Wilmington redevelopment district, and Mendoza told the board Wednesday that residents want to be consulted about the agency’s plans.

Mendoza said his group is especially worried about traffic created by new businesses in the industrial park. Noting that these new businesses generate tax dollars, he also called upon the commissioners to invest that extra money in areas of Wilmington outside the industrial park.

In that respect, Mendoza likened the CRA to the Port of Los Angeles, which has come under fire from the Wilmington Home Owners for creating pollution and truck traffic, but failing to correct these problems by spending money in the community.

“I’m sure you need the money, but we need that money too,” Mendoza said. “Blight in residential communities still exists in Wilmington.”

CRA chairman Jim Wood replied that state law prevents the agency from using its money outside the redevelopment district. However, Wood told Mendoza, “I can promise you that you will be involved in the discussions” about future CRA plans.

Grimaldi’s Departure

Also at the CRA meeting, commissioners honored Jerry Grimaldi, the CRA staff member who for the past seven years has supervised redevelopment areas in both Wilmington and San Pedro, where a major office complex and hotel are being built in the downtown business district.

Grimaldi is leaving the agency Friday to take a job with a private developer in San Pedro.

CRA board chairman Jim Wood praised Grimaldi for pressuring commissioners to pay attention to the Wilmington and San Pedro projects. “You’ve known who you represented,” Wood told Grimaldi. “You fought for what you believed in.”

Grimaldi had an especially difficult task at the Wilmington Industrial Park, where he spent much of his time helping developers overcome a variety of problems in order to build there.

The park, which is roughly bounded by Anaheim Street, Alameda Street, B Street and Broad Avenue, sits atop an oil field. Many of its streets are “paper streets”--that is, unimproved and existing on paper only--and the CRA has had to pave them.

‘Surface Rights’

The park is dotted with 101 working oil pumps, and although oil companies do not own the land, they have “surface rights” to much of it, meaning that the owners can’t build there without the companies’ permission.

In addition, much of the park is divided into tiny parcels that were purchased decades ago by people hoping to strike oil. Developers must string together these tiny lots --simply finding the owners can sometimes be difficult--to create parcels big enough to build on. If an owner refuses to sell, the CRA often claims the land through eminent domain.

Despite these obstacles, the park has grown considerably in recent years. Three major projects, worth more than $5 million, have been completed in the past two years, and an an additional five are under construction. Since the park’s inception, 23 buildings have gone up at an estimated cost of more than $20 million.

Grimaldi and those who do business in the park agree that it is becoming increasingly attractive to developers, who like the relatively low land prices in Wilmington and the community’s proximity to the Port of Los Angeles.

“There’s a lot of activity and a lot of interest out there,” Grimaldi said. “You always get proposals, but I think the proposals that we’ve been getting recently are pretty serious.”