Venice : Canal Assessment OKd

The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to approve an assessment district in the Venice Canals to pay for a $6-million renovation of the historic waterways. Bills for the project have already been mailed to homeowners in the canals area and will cost the average canal-side homeowner $6,600 over a 10 year-period.

The project is scheduled to begin by March and to be completed by the end of 1993. The crumbling banks of the canals will be reinforced and lined with concrete blocks, and its polluted waters will be flushed regularly. Repairs will be made to the footbridges and the deteriorating sidewalks along the canals, which were closed to the public in 1942 for safety reasons.