L.A. Agency on Economic Issues Urged : Recovery: Urban experts use South-Central commercial area to build revitalization model.

A national panel of urban affairs experts, after a week spent creating a model to revitalize a commercial neighborhood in South-Central Los Angeles, proposed several solutions Friday, including the creation of a city agency that would deal solely with economic development issues.

The study was funded and sponsored by the Urban Land Institute, a nonprofit group based in Washington. The preliminary findings were presented Friday, and a complete list of recommendations will be published in about 10 weeks.

Eleven volunteer members of the ULI’s Panel Advisory Service spent the week studying a commercial area on Vermont Avenue, between Manchester and Martin Luther King Jr. boulevards--a riot-torn strip filled with burned-out storefronts and empty lots. The team--whose members included architects, planners and developers--created a neighborhood plan that could serve as a model for other commercial areas. Some of their recommendations have been offered before, such as adding greenery, introducing design standards and improving public services. But the ULI also offered innovative solutions to problems long seen as being intractable.

Instead of relying on coordination between myriad city agencies for the city’s revitalization, the panel recommended the establishment of a Department of Economic Development. This department--which has been proposed by city staff--could streamline the permit process, ease efforts to rebuild and attract new businesses and create a long-range economic development strategy.

Panel member Michael Stegman, chairman of the planning department at the University of North Carolina, said the new department could open offices in riot-torn areas to make it easier to obtain permits. And the city’s “excessively high real estate development costs”--especially for affordable housing--could be addressed, Stegman said.

“The days are over when Southern California was the place to be, . . . (when) local government didn’t have to make any effort with business,” Stegman said. “You’ve got to create a development strategy in order to attract businesses and make it easier for them to set up here.”

Another panel recommendation concerned a miles-long strip of Vermont Avenue that is 100 feet wider than other segments of the street. The panel proposed narrowing Vermont along the strip and using the extra land for parks, housing or commercial purposes.

“We can’t implement all the suggestions, but something like this has real potential for the city,” said Gary Squier, general manager of the city’s Housing Preservation and Production Department, which worked with the ULI on the study. “Because the land would essentially be free, you have a great deal of flexibility with what you can do.”

The ULI also suggested creating “nodes” at key intersections along the commercial strip where development would be concentrated and zoning changed to accommodate housing.

“Instead of commercial development spread thinly over a few miles, these concentrations of development could be very effective,” said Con Howe, director of the city’s Planning Department, which provided technical assistance to the ULI. “I’m particularly interested in plans to develop housing in the underutilized commercial strips.”

The ULI panelists toured the Vermont Avenue commercial strip earlier this week and interviewed business owners, residents and public officials in the area.