Norton Halper; Fought Redevelopment

Norton Halper, a retired antique dealer whose tenacious battle to stop the city’s planned redevelopment of Hollywood made him one of the most feared and respected gadflies at City Hall, died in his home Friday of a heart attack. He was 59.

Halper had been in poor health for years, having suffered two previous heart attacks and the amputation of both legs because of diabetes.

But his failing health barely slowed his efforts to fight the redevelopment process, which he believed unfairly gave city governments the power to condemn property and destroy neighborhoods in the name of progress.

Although Halper lost his battle to stop the city’s plan for redeveloping Hollywood, the experience he gained in the process made him an expert in grass-roots activism and redevelopment law.

In recent years, he began helping myriad neighborhood groups in Southern California, from Northridge to San Diego, in their fights against redevelopment agencies.

Halper, always toting his trusty video camera, became a familiar sight in redevelopment agency meetings throughout the region. He could be fire-and-brimstone at times, but mostly he was known for his thorough preparation, vast knowledge of redevelopment and steadfast refusal to give up.

Halper was born July 28, 1933, the son of a flower-shopkeeper in Boston. He moved to Los Angeles in 1966 with his wife, Dorothy. He worked for 20 years in the restaurant business and later opened an antique store with his wife in West Hollywood.

He was ready to settle into retirement in 1986 when the city enacted the Hollywood Redevelopment Plan. Halper, and others in Hollywood, launched a series of lawsuits to block the plan, contending that it was written in a way that favored big-business interests over those of the many small-business owners and residents.

The last of the lawsuits was decided against Halper and the other plaintiffs in 1990. But Halper’s son, Scott, said that their efforts brought about several changes in state law that improved guidelines for notifying residents about redevelopment plans and created stricter requirements in establishing citizen committees in redevelopment areas.

Halper is survived by his wife, Dorothy, and his son, Scott, both of Hollywood.