Renegade Group Vows to Fight for Its Survival : Hollywood: Citizens committee seeks new trial to remain official adviser on redevelopment after a judge backs Los Angeles’ decision to dissolve the group.

Members of a citizens advisory committee on Hollywood redevelopment voted this week to fight a court ruling that upheld the city of Los Angeles’ right to abolish the group.

By a unanimous vote, the committee instructed its lawyer to ask Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Kurt J. Lewin for a new trial. The committee was abolished by the City Council in May, but 14 of its 25 members have continued to meet.

The renegade committee members sued the city in June to block the council action, but Lewin sided with the city last week. Committee Chairman Robert Nudelman said Tuesday that the group will ask for a new trial because the judge’s ruling was confusing.

“It is like being in a fight,” Nudelman said. “If you lose fairly, it is one thing. But if you lose, and don’t know why, it is a different issue.”

Stanton J. Price, the committee’s lawyer, said he recommended that the group request a new trial rather than appeal the ruling, because an appeal could take more than a year. Price said he hopes Lewin will rule on the new trial request in a few months.

The committee was set up in December, 1983, to help the Community Redevelopment Agency prepare a redevelopment plan for central Hollywood, and it later advised the agency on the renewal. But the council, at the request of Hollywood-area Councilman Michael Woo, voted in May to replace it with a new group, appointed by Woo after the councilman complained that the committee was undermining the redevelopment effort.

Committee members said this week that they were particularly perplexed by the judge’s reference to the committee’s drafting of the Hollywood Redevelopment Plan several years ago. The committee has argued that the plan prohibits the council from abolishing it for 30 years, but the judge stated in his ruling that the plan was not clear on the issue.

The judge said that the City Council “in all likelihood” would not have approved the plan had it included clear language ensuring the committee’s existence. “It also seems clear that the participants were aware of that likelihood and opted for vague language, which might later be argued to provide a 30-year term for the (committee),” the judge wrote.

Price said there is no evidence to support the judge’s conclusion, including a transcript of the committee’s discussions at the time.

“We are going to suggest that the judge made some factual errors and hope that if he recognizes that, he might rethink his position,” Price said.

But Deputy City Attorney Dov S. Lesel said the city will oppose any request for a new trial.

“The judge made a good ruling, consistent with both the law and the facts,” he said. “I can see no need for a new hearing.”

Lesel said he also interprets evidence surrounding the drafting of the plan differently than the judge, but he said he arrives at the same conclusion as the judge. Lesel said the committee’s longevity was never raised as an issue during the drafting, which, he argues, means state redevelopment law--not the plan--should determine the committee’s life span. Under state law, the City Council was permitted to abolish the committee in May.

Nudelman said the committee will continue meeting while Lewin considers its request for a new trial. Lesel acknowledged the committee can continue to meet, but he said it is no longer the official advisory group on Hollywood redevelopment.

“They are a group of concerned Hollywood citizens,” Lesel said.