Central Business District Spending Cap Is Lifted

The redevelopment project that helped remake Los Angeles’ skyline in the 1980s, but that has also drawn fire for shortchanging the needs of the poor, will be kept alive under an agreement given preliminary approval by city and county officials Tuesday.

The agreement lifts the $750-million cap on spending in the city’s central business district to allow limited redevelopment projects Downtown for the next 27 years. It also offers a division of property taxes from the redevelopment area that is more favorable to the county and Los Angeles Unified School District than the current arrangement.

Officials for the city and county said one reason they approved the agreement is because it guarantees minimum levels of funding for housing and social programs Downtown.

The county Board of Supervisors and city Redevelopment Agency approved the agreement Tuesday and it is scheduled to go before the City Council for final approval this morning.

If the council approves the agreement, it will still have to be approved in Los Angeles County Superior Court, where the city 16 years ago agreed to limit its spending in the Downtown redevelopment area.

Former Councilman Ernani Bernardi, who helped force that agreement, has said he will continue to fight any efforts to extend the redevelopment of Downtown.

The 82-year-old Bernardi was ill and not available for comment Tuesday. But in the past, Bernardi has argued that the property tax money tied up in redevelopment would be better spent on other government services, particularly law enforcement and firefighting.

The quick action by city and county officials was forced by a state law passed this year that seeks to rein in redevelopment projects. The law, which takes effect Jan. 1, would prevent the city and county from negotiating the kind of agreement that will save the redevelopment project.

The proposed agreement reapportions the shares of property taxes from Downtown to various government agencies. Without the agreement, the city within three years would have had no funds for new projects and only enough to pay off previous debts. Instead, the agency will get about $10 million a year to sustain ongoing projects Downtown--compared to about $30 million it had in the past.

“It allows redevelopment to continue, not like it would have in the past, but it will at least continue,” said Ron Deaton, the city’s chief legislative analyst.

The county, which has not shared in property taxes from the redevelopment area, will receive about $19 million in 1998 and more in subsequent years.