SHERMAN OAKS : Redevelopment Plan Gets Initial Support

Community leaders this week expressed tentative support for a city proposal to create a redevelopment area in Sherman Oaks.

But local activists also expressed concerns with the proposal, which would divert local property taxes to the cost of earthquake rebuilding and repairs, at a meeting Tuesday night with Los Angeles City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky.

“This (program) has to be designed so that it is targeted to be helpful--not create stumbling blocks to the private market,” said Fred Gaines, co-chairman of the Sherman Oaks Town Council. “What we don’t need is another layer of bureaucracy with regard to planning and zoning and transportation issues.”

“I think it’s a great idea, but time is of the essence,” said Don Shain, owner of Shain’s, a Ventura Boulevard restaurant. “The best idea in the world is going to be worthless if we don’t get on with it in Sherman Oaks.”

Although Yaroslavsky has not backed the concept, proposed by the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency, the councilman said he would not have brought the idea to community leaders if he did not think it worthy of consideration.

“This is a good tool to turn our area around,” he said.

Funds for the program would come from the increase in property taxes expected above those collected in the base year of 1994, a method known as tax increment financing. The CRA could raise a large sum of money upfront by issuing bonds to be repaid by the increment over the years, or it could operate on a pay-as-you-go basis.