Picketers Protest $12-Million Renewal Project

Los Angeles city officials broke ground Monday for a $12-million project they say will revitalize a formerly blighted section of North Hollywood, but picketers attending the ceremony disagreed.

Carrying signs that read “Homes Crushed for Ralphs” and “CRA is killing North Hollywood,” about 10 protesters rallied at the groundbreaking ceremony at the corner of Vineland Avenue and Magnolia Boulevard.

A Ralphs supermarket, a Carl’s Jr. restaurant and other retail stores will be built on the 5.2-acre site, said Charles Sifuentes, spokesman for the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency. The first phase of the project, including the supermarket, is scheduled to be completed by late spring or early summer, he said.

Sifuentes disputed picketers’ claims that the CRA “crushed” houses to make way for the project. The agency purchased the now-vacant site for $8 million from 15 property owners, razing one single-family house and a six-unit apartment building, he said.

Ten of the properties, including the residences, were sold willingly, he said.

The agency forced the sale of the other five by exercising its power of eminent domain.

The CRA sold the site to Hughes Investments of Newport Beach for $5 million, $3 million less than it cost the agency, in order to encourage development in the area, Sifuentes said.

The 740-acre North Hollywood redevelopment project has had a long history of confrontations between pro- and anti-development factions.

In June, the Los Angeles City Council disbanded a citizens advisory group dominated by critics of the project and ordered a new election because a deadlock between the two factions brought the committee’s work to a virtual standstill.