Compton : Backers of Housing Plan Want to Hold Hearing

Two groups that want to put low-cost housing in the Compton Auto Plaza jammed the City Council meeting again Tuesday night to announce that they will hold a public hearing on the development plan if the city refuses to set up such a session.

The South Central Organizing Committee (SCOC) and the United Neighborhoods Organization (UNO) have set Nov. 19 for the mock hearing and rally. The location has not been announced. The two community activist groups have been pushing the city to give them an approximately 12-acre site at the north end of the auto plaza for a 600-home development in which the $69,000 units would be sold to low-income families.

The council has said it cannot hold a public hearing on uses for the land because it is currently negotiating with a truck sales and service firm that wants the site.

City officials, who listened but did not comment Tuesday night, argue that the land should be used for commercial development that would generate much-needed jobs and sales tax dollars. Backers of the housing plan say the best way to revitalize the city would be to attract stable, working families first and, then, commercial development would follow.