STANTON : City to Set Up Panel on Redevelopment

The City Council is looking for residents, property owners and business owners along Beach Boulevard to serve on a redevelopment advisory committee the council plans to appoint next month.

The group of five to seven people is expected to help with plans to extend the city’s redevelopment area by adding scattered parcels along Beach Boulevard, said Paul J. Gerola, Stanton’s redevelopment coordinator.

Interested applicants must live or work within the proposed additions to the redevelopment area, Gerola said. There are 21 properties along Beach Boulevard targeted for addition to the redevelopment area, mostly closed businesses and industrial buildings, he said. Interested applicants should call Gerola at (714) 220-2220, to learn if they qualify for the advisory panel. Applications must be submitted to the city by Jan. 10.

Stanton set up its Redevelopment Agency in 1983 and extended its area once in 1987. The City Council probably will decide next summer whether to add the additional properties to the redevelopment area.

Redevelopment allows a city to rebuild an area that is faltering economically or suffers from high crime, overcrowding or other urban problems. The city assists new businesses or developers by enlivening the area with loans or other financial help, paid with increased sales tax revenue generated by the business improvements.

Although some cities use their power of eminent domain to force owners in redevelopment areas to sell their properties and clear the way for redevelopment, Stanton has never used that power and has no plans to do so within the proposed redevelopment area expansion, Gerola said.