Judge Sides With City Against Feisty Hollywood Committee

A Superior Court judge sided Wednesday with the city of Los Angeles in a dispute with a scrappy citizens advisory committee on Hollywood redevelopment that has refused to disband, despite a City Council decision to abolish it.

Judge Kurt J. Lewin rejected claims by the group, known as the Project Area Committee, that the council’s action violated state law as well as the Hollywood Redevelopment Plan, a broad blueprint for renewal in central Hollywood.

The ruling was a victory for Hollywood-area Councilman Michael Woo, a strong supporter of the redevelopment project. Woo had asked the council to dissolve the committee last May because it had become a forum for “wacky behavior” bent on undermining the renewal effort.

Woo described the ruling as “exhilarating.” He said he wanted to “send out a peace message” to committee members and invite them to cooperate with the advisory panel he appointed in August.

The committee was set up in December, 1983, to help the Community Redevelopment Agency prepare a redevelopment plan for 1,100 acres of central Hollywood.

When the council adopted the $922-million plan in May, 1986, the committee became an advisory group directed by state law to report to the CRA on “policy matters” affecting local residents.

State law required the CRA to consult with the committee for three years. Last May, when the three years elapsed, the council followed Woo’s lead and voted to replace the largely elected committee with a separate advisory group.

But the committee refused to die. Committee members pointed to a section of the plan stating that “to the maximum extent permitted by law, the activities of the agency pertaining to implementation of the plan . . . shall be developed in consultation with the . . . committee.” The members interpret that to mean the life of the 30-year plan.

Lewin disagreed. Ultimately, the judge said, the question is a political one that “area residents can still pursue . . . at the ballot box.”