Panel OKs Aid to Help Build Grocery Store

A Community Redevelopment Agency plan to assist a developer with a $10-million project to build a Ralphs grocery store center in North Hollywood was approved Tuesday by a Los Angeles City Council panel.

The action by the council’s Community Redevelopment and Housing Committee was applauded by two dozen senior citizens who sported powder blue T-shirts with a logo declaring: “Support CRA. Let’s Finish the Job . . . North Hollywood.”

If the agreement is endorsed by the full City Council, the CRA will be authorized to acquire a four-acre parcel at the northwest corner of Magnolia Boulevard and Vineland Avenue for the Ralphs project, said Jerry Belcher, manager of the North Hollywood Redevelopment Project.

Under the pact, the CRA has agreed to purchase and clear the land and sell it to the developer, North Hollywood Partners, for $5 million. Belcher said he expected the CRA cost to exceed $5 million, but could not say by how much.

“I’m not going to say the real cost will be double that or $1 million more,” Belcher said. He added that the developer’s total costs would be about $10 million.

The senior citizens supporting the project complained that there are no markets nearby.

Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, sometimes a sharp critic of the powerful CRA, supported the project and said building a supermarket is the “linchpin” of a community’s well-being.

Also supporting the project was Councilwoman Gloria Molina, the committee’s chairwoman.

The T-shirts and bus transportation to City Hall were arranged by the CRA but apparently financed by the business community, Belcher said.

“I called to ask if the chamber could pay for this,” Belcher said. “I don’t know if the chamber is paying the bills or some business affiliated with the chamber.”

Don Eitner, chamber executive director, could not be reached for comment. A chamber official said Eitner was out of town.