Fee for San Pedro Improvements Gains Steam : Business: Some merchants drop opposition to fee of $100 to $300 a year. Council sets final hearing.

A change of heart among some merchants has kept alive a proposal to pay for public improvements in downtown San Pedro with an annual assessment fee.

About 35 business owners withdrew their objections to the idea, allowing the Los Angeles City Council to begin steps to institute the fee, which would be $100 to $300 a year. A public hearing and final council vote are scheduled for April 5, when city officials say they will have a count of how many of the 419 affected businesses still oppose the assessments.

City officials estimate that the fees would generate about $96,000 a year for such projects as new street lighting in an area generally bounded by Harbor Boulevard, Pacific Avenue and 3rd and 10th streets.

Last week, the assessments appeared to have been defeated because opponents submitted more than 200 letters of protest from merchants and property owners affected. Since the opponents made up more than half the merchants involved, the office of Harbor-area Councilman Rudy Svorinich Jr. declared the proposal dead.

But supporters of the proposed fee, calling it vital to the economic revival of downtown San Pedro, persuaded some merchants to reconsider their position, leaving opponents with less than the 50% needed to block the assessments. At last count, 49.3% of the businesses were listed as opposing the plan, according to the city clerk’s office.

Now, both sides have until April 5 to marshal their forces in the dispute. And a spirited public hearing this week made it clear that the battle is continuing.

“The people of our district are solidly against this proposal,” said John Papadakis, who with his brother, Nick, helped lead an opposition letter-writing campaign.

“This program was poorly conceived (and) unfairly presented,” Papadakis added, maintaining that proponents tried to ramrod the proposal through the city.

But supporters of the assessments called the plan the only hope for reinvigorating a downtown business district pummeled by the recession, competition from nearby cities and years of neglect by Los Angeles City Hall.

“We’ve had a 5% to 7% loss of business downtown in the last year,” said Gary Larson, a past president of the San Pedro Chamber of Commerce. “It’s a huge loss. We can’t handle any more. We are dying down there.”

Svorinich, who has supported the assessments, said the fees would be locally controlled and vital to improving downtown San Pedro.

“However, I do recognize there are some concerns by businesses within the district. And our office and those who are proponents of the (assessments) will do everything we can to mitigate those concerns,” he said.

Even those who agree with his position, however, say the task remains daunting.

“It has been very difficult (to win supporters) because there’s such a gut level (opposition)” to new fees or taxes, said Janet Gunter, a vice president of San Pedro Revitalization Corp., a nonprofit group of local merchants.