CRA to Study Revitalization of Pacoima : Redevelopment: Councilman Richard Alarcon says it remains to be seen if a full-fledged project will be established in the area.

Fulfilling a campaign pledge, Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon on Tuesday won approval of a study by the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency on how to revitalize Pacoima.

But in an interview after the City Council’s 14-0 vote ordering the CRA to conduct the study, Alarcon said it remains to be seen if the agency will recommend that a full-fledged CRA project be established in the area and, if it did, whether he would support it.

“There are a whole slew of things that could be done without doing a CRA project,” Alarcon said.

Such projects, often controversial, give redevelopment authorities great powers, including eminent domain to buy property and the ability to take a share of the property tax revenues derived from properties in the redevelopment zone to finance improvements.

The new councilman, who took office July 1, also indicated Tuesday that he would oppose any revitalization plan to displace Pacoima’s existing businesses or to redraw the face of that economically depressed community.

“I share a deep concern for the local merchants,” Alarcon said. “Rather than move them, I would fight to make them part of the project.” They should be, he said, “the real benefactors” of any economic revitalization of an area that has long been ignored by City Hall.

“Whatever we do has to be consistent with the existing community plans,” Alarcon continued. “I have no interest in exceeding the plans that are there now.”

The motion approved Tuesday carefully excluded “residential neighborhoods from any new proposed redevelopment plans, unless specifically directed by the City Council to include them.” Instead, the study should concentrate on commercial and industrial areas with the objective of expanding job opportunities, the motion stated.

During his campaign for office last spring, Alarcon repeatedly pledged to have the CRA study the feasibility of various strategies for revitalizing Pacoima, an area of crime and joblessness.

A study like this “should have been done a long time ago,” Alarcon said. Pacoima has been a stepchild community, he said, treated with indifference by City Hall as it dispensed city services ranging from street lighting to street sweeping.

While none of his colleagues commented on the Alarcon motion, veteran CRA critics spoke up. Howard O. Watt said the CRA “does not belong” in a district once represented by Councilman Ernani Bernardi, the council’s most steadfast foe of redevelopment projects.

Watt warned that a CRA project would result in the “total destruction” of the community and challenged Alarcon to identify the truly blighted areas of Pacoima.

The San Fernando Valley has only one redevelopment project now. It is located in North Hollywood and its sponsors, including Council President John Ferraro, are now seeking to provide it with a new mandate, its current authority to operate having expired.

Alarcon said he expected to see some of the results of the study in six months. If a CRA project is recommended, the final study might not be available for another 18 months, he said.