Proposal for Run-Down Area Draws Skepticism

Preliminary plans for rehabilitating a run-down section of Northridge through a redevelopment district met with skepticism Monday from members of a Los Angeles City Council committee and from citizens.

Councilwoman Gloria Molina, chairwoman of the council’s Community Redevelopment and Housing Committee, questioned why the project was moving so quickly through the usually labyrinthine redevelopment process.

In June, the Community Redevelopment Agency, or CRA, began studying the 40 acres bounded by Parthenia Street, Wilbur and Vanalden avenues and the Southern Pacific railroad tracks. The proposal is tentatively scheduled to come before the full council for a final vote in January or February.

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“I want to know why this has been expedited in such a way,” Molina said.

Although Monday’s meeting was intended only to review a CRA study proposing boundaries for the district, Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky suggested that when the plan returns for a vote, it will not be approved unless such questions are answered satisfactorily.

The CRA study, presented to the committee, also proposes that the land be turned into a business park for industrial and commercial development. Councilman Hal Bernson, who represents the area, said many of the existing businesses would be allowed to stay if they agreed to plant landscaping and clean up their buildings.

Residents of the area who spoke during the meeting accused Bernson of pushing the project on behalf of developers of the adjacent Price Club commercial property.

“We do not need redevelopment in this area,” said Walter Prince, president of the Parthenia Property Owners and Tenants Assn. “Only the Price Club and CRA are going to benefit.”

But Bernson said he is merely trying to get the council to move quickly on such smaller neighborhood redevelopment projects to solve the problem of “pockets of blight.”

“It’s much easier than normal redevelopment projects, which have complicated, big areas,” he said.

Redevelopment districts tend to more closely resemble the size of the North Hollywood district, at more than 700 acres. Redevelopment allows cities to freeze taxes at the existing rate, then, as the area improves, collect the increasing tax revenues and use them to make additional improvements.

The Northridge proposal is to be reviewed Thursday by the Planning Commission, which will decide whether to allow the CRA to proceed with preparing plans and scheduling public hearings.