Redevelopment Supporters Win Majority on Panel : North Hollywood: A re-evaluation of election results virtually ensures that the project will continue. But opponents vow to contest the outcome.

After re-evaluating election results, city officials said Wednesday that supporters of the North Hollywood Redevelopment Project had captured the majority of seats on a citizens advisory committee, virtually ensuring the project’s continuation.

But in keeping with the project’s turbulent history, members of the anti-redevelopment faction vowed to contest the outcome of Tuesday’s election for the Project Area Committee, or PAC.

“We’ve uncovered some major corruption,” said Mildred Weller, leader of the anti-development faction, who declined to elaborate. “They’re hanging on by their fingernails.”

The long history of bitter disorders between pro- and anti-redevelopment factions motivated the Los Angeles City Council to dissolve the previous PAC and call Tuesday’s election. The possible stakes included the future of the Community Redevelopment Agency’s activities in North Hollywood. The citizens committee could play an important role in deciding whether the agency’s expiring mandate in North Hollywood will be renewed.

When the results of the election were first announced late Tuesday, all involved agreed that the new PAC was evenly split--12 to 12--between supporters and opponents of the project.

But a re-evaluation by both groups Wednesday indicated that the pro-redevelopment faction won 11 of the 25 seats up for grabs. Project foes won 10 of the seats, and four of the seats will have to be filled by the new board because candidates were either tied, or failed to receive the minimum number of votes necessary to be elected.

That, redevelopment supporters said, means victory for them.

“With the majority we have, we can fill those empty seats with our people,” said Guy McCreary, leader of the pro-redevelopment faction. “Redevelopment has won in North Hollywood.”

If he is correct, that will help perpetuate the 13-year effort to revitalize one of the San Fernando Valley’s oldest communities, the powerful Community Redevelopment Agency’s only venture of its kind in the San Fernando Valley.

The CRA’s eminent-domain powers in North Hollywood have expired, and it has nearly exhausted the $89 million in property taxes that it was authorized to spend. If the project is to continue, the City Council must grant the CRA’s request for a new 12-year charter and renew its powers of eminent domain.

The newly elected PAC will advise city officials as they chart a future course for the project.

Under state law, the council is not bound to follow the PAC’s advice. But if PAC members disapprove of a new charter for the project, it would take a two-thirds vote of the council to override them. Ratifying the PAC’s advice would require only a majority vote.

The PAC will consider the issue after it meets Nov. 10 to pick a new chairperson and choose four other board members, said Jerry Belcher, manager of the North Hollywood project.

The CRA spent $28,000 on mailers encouraging the more than 12,000 people eligible to vote in the election, but only a fraction--229--actually did.

Belcher and other CRA officials expressed relief at the outcome of the election, saying a deadlocked board would have created havoc.

“It could have ended up a horrible mess like the other ones,” Belcher said. “I was driving to work this morning worrying how they were even going to pick a chairperson to keep everyone from talking at the same time.”

But even though redevelopment supporters appear to control the majority of votes on the PAC, the meetings are likely to continue to be contentious, those involved said. One fractious issue had already popped up Wednesday.

Weller, the leader of the anti-redevelopment faction, said she will ask the City Council to invalidate the election of PAC member Bruce Miller, who represents the nonprofit agency, New Directions for Youth. Weller claims the agency should not have a voice in North Hollywood affairs because it is not based there. But CRA officials said Miller is qualified to serve on the board because the agency serves residents of the area.

If Miller were disqualified, the PAC would again be equally divided between the two factions.

Times staff writer John Schwada contributed to this story.