NORTH HOLLYWOOD : Most Incumbents Elected to CRA Panel

Most incumbents retained their seats in the election of a citizens advisory panel for a controversial, multimillion-dollar city redevelopment project area in North Hollywood, according to unofficial election results released Thursday.

But two seats on the Project Area Committee still must be settled because of a three-way tie in the election held Tuesday at St. David’s Episcopal Church.

The committee, which has no legislative power, is the only residential panel that advises the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency, or CRA, on budgets and projects in the 740-acre North Hollywood Redevelopment Area.

The project area, created in November, 1979, to spur investment and reduce blight, is bounded by Cahuenga Boulevard on the east, Tujunga Avenue on the west, Camarillo Street on the south and Hatteras Street on the north. Only voting-age residents living in the redevelopment area were allowed to vote.

The 25-member panel will choose April 11 which two of the three tied candidates will take seats to represent business owners and business tenants in the area.

Incumbents Richard Gulbranson and Mildred Weller are vying with newcomer Craig Klapman within that category of the committee. One other candidate, Philip Gonzales, won the third seat open within that category. Gonzales, owner of a construction business, is new to the Project Area Committee, said Walter Beaumont, community affairs officer for the Community Redevelopment Agency.

The committee is made up of members representing five categories: business owner/tenant, residential owner/occupant, residential tenant, absentee property owner and community organizations.

Within the residential owner/occupant category, only three candidates applied for three vacant positions: Maria R. Fant, Dean Cohen and Jennie Pelton.

Within the residential tenant category, Gary Hendrickson, Howard Greene and incumbent Ronald Frederick won seats out of a seven-candidate field.

Of absentee property owners, incumbents Lee Cameron and Robert Mills defeated two challengers to retain their seats.

In the category for community organizations, Phillip Lipp of the North Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and Brad Hills of the Valley Theater League won seats without opposition.

Only one incumbent--Nancy Litwack--was defeated, in the category of business owner.

Most of the candidates are people who have been affiliated with the project area committee for years, Beaumont said.

The election results must be certified by the Los Angeles City Clerk’s Office and the City Council, Beaumont said.