3rd Valley Quake Recovery Plan OKd : Redevelopment: Hard-hit area covers 200 acres of mostly commercial properties in North Hollywood.

The Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to establish an emergency redevelopment plan to help rebuild quake-battered neighborhoods in North Hollywood, the third such recovery plan approved in the past two weeks.

The recovery area covers 200 acres of mostly commercial properties and is designed to use property taxes to generate $1.7 million in commercial and residential loans and money for improvements to public buildings and other facilities.

The redevelopment project is one of six that city and redevelopment officials are proposing for hard-hit areas in the San Fernando Valley and Hollywood. In total, the projects would raise about $160 million.

The plans have generated controversy primarily due to the checkered history of the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency, which would oversee the operation of each recovery area.

But Councilman Joel Wachs, who represents the portions of North Hollywood within the recovery area, said residents and redevelopment officials have drafted a recovery plan that limits the power of the CRA and eliminates its power to condemn private property.

He said he believes that the plan will help rebuild a hard-hit area that includes Laurel Plaza and Valley Plaza malls.

“I don’t want this area to stagnate,” he said. “There is a lot of potential here, and I don’t want it to deteriorate because of an act of God.”

The council also listened to supporters and critics of a proposed redevelopment plan for 2,400 acres of hard-hit neighborhoods in Canoga Park, Winnetka and Reseda. But the council delayed a final decision on that plan for a week to respond to written criticism.

Despite the criticism, Councilwoman Laura Chick, who represents the portions of the West Valley included in the plan, said the recovery proposal has the support of the “full fabric of the community.”

In a related development, residents and business owners in a proposed recovery area for the northwest Valley had to scramble Tuesday morning to rewrite portions of their plan after City Atty. James K. Hahn ruled that it was legally flawed.

Councilman Hal Bernson, who represents the proposed northeast Valley recovery area, said redevelopment officials and residents have corrected the problems addressed by Hahn without dramatically changing the plan’s characteristics.