Pacoima Economic Plan Gains Support : Aid: A councilman gets backing from colleagues and a congressman to include the troubled community in a federal ‘empowerment zone.’

Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon won the support of two council colleagues and a congressman Thursday for his plan to include Pacoima in a federal “empowerment zone” to revitalize the economically troubled community.

Councilmen Zev Yaroslavsky and Joel Wachs and Rep. Howard Berman (D-Panorama City) threw their support behind Alarcon’s efforts to get Pacoima the grants, tax breaks and job training provided to residents and businesses in the zone.

“I have brought together this coalition to send a message loud and clear: The Valley wants its fair share,” Alarcon said at a Pacoima news conference attended by Yaroslavsky and a representative for Berman. Wachs did not attend.

Empowerment zones are an idea championed by President Clinton as a way to revive troubled inner-city neighborhoods. Each zone will receive up to $100 million in special aid and tax breaks. Also, smaller zones, called “enterprise communities,” can get about $3 million in grants for social services programs. Only six zones will be created nationwide.

The zones, however, can be no larger than 20 square miles and cannot contain a population of more than 200,000. That represents only 4.4% of the city’s area and only 5.7% of it’s population. A zone does not have to be contiguous.

In the San Fernando Valley, only a small area of Pacoima meets the U. S. Housing and Urban Development Department criteria to be included in a Los Angeles empowerment zone.

For Alarcon, the zone is only one potential tool in his attempts to spur economic revival in his district, an area with the lowest annual household income level, the highest poverty level and the highest unemployment level in the Valley. Several other special districts have been established in Alarcon’s council district.

A panel of City Council members will hold a meeting Thursday to hear public suggestions on which areas should be included in the city’s application to establish an empowerment zone. The application is due June 30.

“City officials must recognize that the Valley has its share of poverty and, fortunately, its share of opportunity,” Yaroslavsky said. “For this reason, I support the establishment of an empowerment zone in Pacoima.”

Other communities vying for inclusion in the zone include Boyle Heights, Lincoln Heights, El Sereno, Watts, South-Central Los Angeles and San Pedro.