Redevelop--Don’t Dissipate : Is the fractious L.A. City Council about to dilute earthquake-targeted aid?

Much as San Francisco did after the Loma Prieta quake, the cities of Santa Monica, San Fernando and Santa Clarita have turned to the redevelopment process in the effort to recover from the Northridge earthquake. Each is using or is attempting to use emergency provisions of the state’s redevelopment law to quickly establish recovery areas in their disaster zones.

Under the law, local redevelopment agencies can keep all of the additional property tax generated by new construction in an established project area, then use that money to help fund rebuilding and recovery efforts. It’s a fine idea. Now, Los Angeles is finally jumping onto the redevelopment bandwagon. Well, sort of.

The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to instruct the Community Redevelopment Agency to study the possibility of establishing such areas. Yes, we said study , when relative speed is of the essence. Because the city proposal also falls under state emergency provisions, these areas must be established by October or November at the latest, and even that does not sound very quick to us.

Moreover, it was originally believed that such zones could help fill the gaps in aid for the recovery of the “ghost towns” that have sprung up in parts of the San Fernando Valley, Hollywood and the Mid-City area. These damaged sections have been abandoned since the Jan. 17 earthquake and reoccupied by criminals and opportunists.

The redevelopment effort stands to get bogged down by delays and by being spread too thin. For example, a staff of six to 10 workers will be looking at potential sites in Council Districts 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12 and 13. That will not only be an arduous and time-consuming task, replete with arguments over what is to be included; it also ranges quite far afield from the areas that suffered momentous earthquake damage.

It’s time to focus on those areas that sustained truly heavy damage. Even so, the funding that might emerge from such an approach would come no earlier than September of next year. If the federal government had delayed similarly in getting the aid rolling, we all would have howled in anger.