SHERMAN OAKS : Town Leaders Debate Redevelopment Area

A proposal to create a redevelopment area in Sherman Oaks generated both support and concerns at a meeting of the Sherman Oaks Town Council this week.

Some council members said they liked the fact that the redevelopment plan currently being drafted by the Community Redevelopment Agency appears to limit that agency’s powers, including its ability to seize property by exercising its power of eminent domain. Others worried aloud about the speed at which the plan is being put together.

The CRA has proposed creating a redevelopment area in Sherman Oaks as a way to raise money to rebuild the quake-damaged portions of the hard-hit community. The money would come from the additional property taxes in the project area the city would collect after the improvements were made to the area. “I think (the plan) will work, and I think it will be a benefit,” said Barry Wegman, executive vice president of the Sherman Oaks Chamber of Commerce.

“How do we keep from creating a monster that 30 years from now goes out of control?” asked the Rev. Allen McCallum, pastor at the First Presbyterian Church.

At the Monday night meeting, which was dominated by the discussion on redevelopment, council co-chairman Fred Gaines observed that both the chamber and the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn. have formed committees on the issue and have been intensively studying the proposal.

The homeowners committee has already met with officials from the CRA and City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky’s office to discuss concerns about the draft plan, and the two committees have met recently.

Alisa Katz, Yaroslavsky’s chief of staff, said that because the area would be an emergency recovery area rather than a traditional redevelopment area, the city would appoint a Community Advisory Committee rather than hold elections for a Project Area Committee.

One difference between the two is that members of an advisory committee do not have to live in the project area, as project committee members must. And while a project committee’s decision to reject a redevelopment plan can only be overridden by a two-thirds majority of the City Council, an advisory committee does not have that power, Katz said.

The meeting was held at the Sherman Oaks Hospital and Health Center, the site of the council’s next meeting on Oct. 10.