DOWNTOWN : 26 Redevelopment Projects Threatened

Budget cuts approved by the Community Redevelopment Agency board could effectively kill some proposed redevelopment projects in Downtown and Little Tokyo.

To cut $26 million from the agency’s budget for fiscal 1993-94, the staff recommended that the board drop funding for 77 projects this year.

Some of the cuts will postpone projects for a year, but 26 projects are seriously threatened or doomed. Among them are plans to rehabilitate the Little Tokyo Historic District, which some community members fear may not happen without the low-interest loans and matching-fund incentives the agency had hoped to offer the property owners.

Some of the projects deleted from the agency’s work list are in the Central Business District redevelopment area Downtown. Under the terms of a 1977 lawsuit settlement, the agency cannot spend more than $750 million on the district, and some programs had to be cut so that the spending cap would not be exceeded too quickly.

The agency’s board made the cuts May 6 in response to Mayor Tom Bradley’s suggestion that $28.7 million be transferred from the agency to the city budget to help pay off bonds for the construction of the Convention Center and the Central Library.

The cuts did not go over well with Little Tokyo community leaders.

“Why are we, Little Tokyo, being cut . . . to pay for the city library and the Convention Center?” asked Lisa Sugino, project manager for the Little Tokyo Service Center’s housing project.

The redevelopment agency’s board members and staff predicted that local governments will also have to make major cuts if lawmakers require local agencies to transfer funds to help balance the state budget. “This is a small part of a very big picture,” said Ed Avila, administrator of the redevelopment agency.