Panel Has Trouble Filling Positions : Redevelopment: Nine of 25 seats on a North Hollywood advisory committee remain vacant. Members disagree about why.

Membership positions on a North Hollywood citizens advisory committee are going begging amid charges that the city’s redevelopment program has become a rubber stamp for business interests.

Of 25 slots on the North Hollywood Project Area Committee, which advises the city on one of Los Angeles’ largest redevelopment projects, only 16 have been filled. Community activists disagree over whether apathy or antipathy toward dissident voices is responsible for the vacancies.

“The deck is stacked against you unless you’re pro-business,” said Greg Roberts, a North Hollywood resident who failed to win enough votes last week to serve on the committee. Committee members and others who live or conduct business in the project area were eligible to vote.

The committee acts as an adviser to the city on redevelopment, which is controversial in many places but has generated little opposition in North Hollywood since the committee was formed in 1977. The project manager admitted the committee has been a cheerleader.

“I think part of the Project Area Committee’s function is to lend the city support,” said Jerry Belcher, the project’s manager. He said he “can’t recall any times when we’ve really been on opposite sides of the fence.”

But committee members denied that they are biased in favor of business and said that lack of interest is primarily responsible for the nine vacancies remaining on the advisory board after Tuesday’s annual election.

“We have people who are housewives, who are retired like me, on this board, and we’ve tried to fill these positions,” Chairwoman Ada Klevens said Thursday. “I resent that people aren’t interested enough to participate, and I would do anything to get more people involved. But I still have the constitutional right to vote for whom I choose.”

Klevens added that interested homeowners, renters, business leaders and officers of community organizations may still run for the vacant seats at the March 13 meeting at the First Baptist Church in North Hollywood. Terms range from one to two years, she said, and members are expected to attend monthly meetings.

The 740-acre project area is generally bounded by Tujunga Avenue, Cahuenga Boulevard and Hatteras and Camarillo streets. The committee is important because the redevelopment project area in North Hollywood is the third largest in Los Angeles, ranking behind only the downtown central business district and the Hollywood zone. It is the only redevelopment area in the San Fernando Valley.

What community opposition has existed has been voiced primarily by individuals who have been displaced by the zone’s major projects. Two of those projects are the $25-million Hewlett-Packard Co. building at the southwest corner of Lankershim and Magnolia boulevards, and The Academy, a $40-million office and retail complex with 200 apartments under construction at the intersection’s northeast corner, said Mary Presby, an aide to Councilman John Ferraro, who represents the area.

Belcher said the lack of contention on the Project Area Committee is a sign of the public’s support for the renewal of the area.

But John Walsh, a Hollywood resident who attended the meeting, said the committee doesn’t want dissent.

“Redevelopment is really a scam--you’re not doing anything to improve small businesses,” Walsh said. “Your idea of a tenant is a movie star who can be in the Walk of Fame. The rest of the world doesn’t exist in this fantasy world you’re creating.”

Belcher said that in Hollywood, where Walsh lives, redevelopment has been much more controversial. Councilman Michael Woo disbanded the Project Area Committee last year because he said it had become a forum for “wacky behavior” bent on undermining the renewal effort.