Needs of Two Eastside Areas to Be Studied : Communities: City seeks ways to revitalize aging neighborhoods of El Sereno and Boyle Heights.

City officials on Monday announced the launching of a yearlong study to determine ways to revitalize the communities of Boyle Heights and El Sereno, two of the city’s oldest and most densely populated neighborhoods.

The $160,000 study will focus on the physical, social and economic needs of a 5,400-acre area on the Eastside. Officials will solicit input from a 36-member community advisory committee that will include residents, merchants and community activists, Councilman Richard Alatorre and Community Redevelopment Agency officials said at a news briefing.

The city has hired the consulting firm of Barrio Planners Inc. to conduct the study. The consultants will gather data about community problems, land use and the character of the area’s population and businesses.

Alatorre said the survey will be the first to encompass such a large area. A similar study is being conducted in a depressed section of South-Central Los Angeles, but involves only 500 acres.

In the Boyle Heights-El Sereno project, problems already identified include aging housing stock, the tendency of the area’s mostly Latino residents to shop elsewhere and a pronounced exodus of light industry, said Alatorre, who represents both communities.

“Housing is a tremendous need and we don’t have any open space, so we have to look at revitalizing,” Alatorre said.

The study “is not for the purpose of redevelopment, but to look at every strategy possible” for economic and community improvement, he said. It could result in recommendations that target specific neighborhoods for rehabilitation and public facility improvements or commercial development, according to the CRA.

Financing for any recommended projects would depend upon what was urged by the study, agency officials said.

The CRA has overseen two much smaller revitalization efforts during the last decade in Boyle Heights involving about 437 acres, said CRA project manager Al Santillanes.

Under those programs the agency has provided loans and other means for the renovation of 960 housing units, created 29 new units and invested more than $2.3 million in such things as new sidewalks, curbs and gutters.

Money that financed those projects has since dwindled and a main focus of the new study will be to identify new funding sources for a more comprehensive program, said Santillanes.

Revitalization Effort

Predominantly Latino Boyle Heights and El Sereno will be the subjects of a one-year study of ways to revitalize one of the oldest and most densely populated areas in the city. The $160,000 study will cover an area of 5,400 acres.