Bernson to Pull CRA Plan for Quake Aid

Councilman Hal Bernson said Monday he is withdrawing a plan that would have provided at least $25 million in earthquake repair funds to property owners in the northwest San Fernando Valley, saying that Community Redevelopment Agency officials refused to accept a limited role in the rebuilding.

Bernson’s decision means that the neighborhood that lent its name to the Jan. 17 earthquake may wind up one of the few quake-damaged communities that will not receive redevelopment help. He had initially proposed a redevelopment project for the Valley’s worst-hit neighborhoods in a 21,000-acre swath of Northridge, Chatsworth, Granada Hills, Porter Ranch and North Hills.

The City Council has approved five other redevelopment project areas in the Valley and in Hollywood.

But in contrast to the other plans, Bernson’s proposal severely limited the power of the Community Redevelopment Agency by, for example, forbidding any public works improvements and providing private loan guarantees rather than direct loans.

Advisory committee members also said they wanted to curb traditional CRA powers, such as the ability to condemn property.

“This is not a district that suffers blight,” Bernson said. “This is a district that suffers earthquake damage.”

Bernson, in refusing the city’s help, accused the CRA of trying to foist “social engineering” on his district under the guise of earthquake reconstruction. City residents in the past have complained of redevelopment projects displacing longtime residents to make way for new projects and of requiring affordable housing in more affluent neighborhoods.

“The CRA is more interested in securing their future, in securing their jobs and their bureaucracy, than they are in serving the people of our district,” said Bernson, who was joined by members of a citizens advisory panel at a news conference Monday.

Valley residents who helped author the failed redevelopment plan portrayed their battle more as a tax revolt, saying they fear an unresponsive city bureaucracy would dictate the use of their property tax dollars.

But CRA officials say they have tried to help Bernson bring his plan to fruition.

“We are here to facilitate, and we have done that,” said Peggy Moore, vice chairwoman of the CRA. She refused to answer to specific charges leveled by Bernson, and said the fate of the plan is up to him.

Bernson is expected to formally withdraw the plan during tonight’s City Council meeting.

The battle over rebuilding Bernson’s district echoes a longtime controversy over how and where redevelopment tax money is spent. To fund redevelopment, annual increases in property taxes are spent in a specific project area, instead of being spent in other parts of the city and elsewhere in the state.

Bernson’s plan had been facing opposition and scrutiny on the City Council. Other council members said it encompassed too broad an area and that too much tax money would be diverted from city services such as schools and police protection.

But Bernson has countered that his district suffered 80% of the city’s quake damage. His proposed redevelopment plan would have paid for itself through increased tax revenues once the redevelopment project had ended.

CRA officials estimate that a redevelopment zone in Bernson’s district would have diverted $245 million in property taxes over 45 years.

Bernson’s district would have been the largest of the six redevelopment projects proposed for the Valley and Hollywood.