Redevelopment of Santa Barbara Plaza Debated : Business: Most people agree that the shopping center needs to be improved. But merchants fear that rents would rise, forcing out tenants.

With its aging facades and long rows of empty parking spaces, the Santa Barbara Plaza doesn’t appear to be much of a commercial prize. But in the last few years, especially since the April-May riots, the debate has heated up over how to improve the 20-acre shopping center.

Speculation about the future of Santa Barbara Plaza heightened this fall, when Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas beat out Councilman Nate Holden for the plaza in a redistricting battle.

“This is just a hot spot for redevelopment,” said Bill Price, project manager for the Community Redevelopment Agency, which seeks to extend the area of the Crenshaw redevelopment project area to include the plaza on Martin Luther King Boulevard.

“There are mixed emotions,” Price said. “There’s always been a sense that this was a very important area in terms of the relatively affluent African-American population here. This is seen as their last chance to be involved in meaningful development.”

The city has not declared the plaza a redevelopment area, which would clear the way for anything from sprucing up the storefronts to building a new center.

Last January, Councilwoman Ruth Galanter, whose district included the plaza at that time, appointed a 15-member community advisory committee to review revitalization proposals. Robert Moore, a committee member, said the group recently submitted a draft of community concerns to the Los Angeles City Council, the first step toward gaining redevelopment status.

“Our biggest fear as merchants and property owners is being displaced by increased rents” that would follow redevelopment, said Moore, president of the Santa Barbara Plaza Merchants Assn.

The plaza, which houses 230 tenants and a mix of retail shops and services, has one of the largest concentrations of black-owned businesses in Los Angeles.

“This is the last stronghold black business owners have,” said Moore, owner of Moore’s Hair Design for 14 years. “We want to make sure we have a say in what happens.”

Ridley-Thomas plans to meet next month with merchants who have met with the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency during the year to discuss what path revitalization should take. Although Ridley-Thomas was not available for comment last week, an aide said the councilman would address the Santa Barbara Plaza issue at a community meeting Tuesday from 2 to 6 p.m. at Christ the Good Shepherd Church, 3303 W. Vernon Ave.

“Most owners feel the place should be torn down and rebuilt,” said Tony Howell, a property owner who also runs Howell’s Bakery. “I think it’s feasible for a good portion of the tenants to stay.”

But Moore said: “We have more than merchants. Pastor (Billy) Ingram at Maranatha Community Church has already said he’s not going anywhere.”

What’s not in dispute is the need to take action. Since the neighboring Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza opened four years ago, Santa Barbara Plaza has seen a decline in business as foot traffic shifted to the new mall. Rents along the Marlton Avenue side, which faces the mall, skyrocketed and forced some merchants out.

Many Santa Barbara merchants say they don’t want the plaza’s redevelopment to resemble the Baldwin Hills mall project. “The quality of goods, the selection is not there,” Moore said of the mall’s stores. “We don’t want retailers coming in here thinking they can undersell black consumers with more discount shoe places.”

And merchants also want to protect the interests of small businesses in the plaza, given that a number of merchants were displaced to make way for the mall.

“What’s going to make a difference is how people already here are taken care of,” said Frank Holoman, owner of the Boulevard Cafe and the adjacent Black Achievers newspaper. “The question is: How and when will (the city) compensate (displaced) business owners?”