WATTS : Consultants Hired to Draft Recovery Plan

A team of consultants has been hired by the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency to draft an economic recovery program for the Watts area.

A $160,000 contract was awarded to Gateway Architects and Engineers, a black-owned firm from Paramount, to conduct an extensive market analysis and map out an economic development strategy for improvements along commercial corridors in the Watts area.

The corridors are in an area that is generally bounded by Century Boulevard, the Harbor and Century freeways and Alameda Street.

“The main thrust of this study will be to provide technical advice and expertise to help the community visualize how it can improve economically,” said Alvin Jenkins, the redevelopment agency’s project manager for Watts.

He said one of the study’s goals will be redeveloping commercial strips in areas where there are many abandoned buildings or vacant land.

“For example, there is some land left vacant by a grocery store that was burned down during the riots at Compton and Central avenues,” Jenkins said.

“The group will decide whether to put another store there or replace it with some other business.”

The study, which could take 15 months, will solicit the suggestions and ideas of residents, business owners and tenants, and community organizations.

Jenkins said the final report will make specific recommendations on how to create certain types of jobs and businesses, change land use and zoning, and coordinate state, county and federal funds for economic development.

It also will include a strategy for developing local minority-owned businesses.

One key focus of the study will be an examination of how to involve private banks in funding projects and start-up businesses, he said.

Gateway has assembled a consultant team that includes the Latino real estate firm of Meza & Madrid Development of Bellflower and the female-owned design firm of Urban Vision from Irvine, Jenkins said.