Redevelopment Plan Draws Heavy Criticism : Meeting: Agency is accused of using funds on large commercial projects that have little benefit for average residents.

A proposed five-year redevelopment plan for North Hollywood drew heavy criticism from residents at a public meeting Tuesday night.

The North Hollywood Redevelopment Project, proposed by the Community Redevelopment Agency, would include $6.9 million for economic development projects and another $3.1 million for rehabilitating housing.

Many of the approximately 100 people who attended the hearing of CRA board commissioners at St. David’s Episcopal Church on Magnolia Boulevard showered criticism on the redevelopment agency, accusing it of channeling taxpayer dollars to large commercial projects that would provide little benefit to the average resident.

“I say, replace the five-year plan with a five-day plan,” said John Walsh, a North Hollywood resident. “Get out of here by Sunday! This plan is about the transference of wealth from small property owners to large property owners.”

Bobbi Fiedler, one of seven CRA commissioners, said during the meeting that the agency, which began work in 1979 in North Hollywood, “has not made a level of improvement that is reasonable after these years. Overwhelmingly, in terms of the number of people here, there seems to be opposition to this plan.”

As speaker after speaker took the podium to oppose spending more money for redevelopment, resident Ann Hoyt stood at one side of the room, encouraging them to help her prepare a map that would show the extent of opposition to the redevelopment plan.

“Do you want your property taken out of the special district?” she asked.

After making their statements, many residents marched to a map of the redevelopment district leaning against the wall and told Hoyt to mark their property in red ink, to show that they do not want to be included in the redevelopment district’s program.

The North Hollywood CRA has spent $77 million so far, not including debt service, and the agency is now seeking alternative sources of funding. Agency officials have said that four years into the next five-year plan, they will very likely have no money for new projects.

But funds to pay off the plan’s debts would come from projects already under way, according to agency officials.

Some of the goals of the five-year plan include widening streets and helping homeowners remodel or renovate earthquake-damaged houses. The plan also envisions building 78 new residences in a 750-acre redevelopment project.