Shot of Adrenalin for a Recovery : Putting inner-city redevelopment on the fast track

Tired of a so-called post-riot recovery effort that sometimes appears to be proceeding with all the speed of a backlash of taffy? If so, the proposed Los Angeles Area Economic Recovery Act of 1992 may be just the medicine to ease those blues.

That’s because this piece of state legislation would jump-start new redevelopment projects in neighborhoods devastated by last spring’s riots--projects for areas such as Koreatown or South Los Angeles--in about six months. Typically it takes two years to get a project under way because of requirements for environmental study and citizen participation.

The legislation, currently before an Assembly-Senate conference committee, would give the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency an even higher profile in the task of rebuilding the city. The act would provide a “fast track” for redevelopment projects in a target area spanning 150 square miles from Hollywood to Compton and from L.A.’s east side to Inglewood. The CRA is envisioning as many as 10 new projects, if the necessary funds become available. But homeowners need not fear losing their houses to make way for redevelopment projects. The bill would restrict the CRA’s eminent domain authority to industrial and commercial properties.

The bill would employ the disaster provisions of state redevelopment law to allow the CRA to plan new projects in areas that suffered damage as a direct result of the riots. ABA 394 would not require any state funding--money would come from traditional CRA sources--and is patterned on similar “fast-track” laws enacted for Oakland after last year’s fires and for Whittier after the 1987 earthquake. The bill would divert some of the county’s property-tax base to the proposed redevelopment projects. But burned-out buildings contribute to declining property values and do little to generate tax revenues.

The Legislature needs to move on this bill quickly, before it recesses. Allowing the measure to die could postpone the creation of jobs and housing in areas hard-hit by the riots. Indeed, AB 394 could help speed up the rebuilding process and remove the scars of the riots in Los Angeles.