NORTH HOLLYWOOD : Redevelopment Area Budget Cuts Backed

Programs to create housing for artists in commercial buildings and promote North Hollywood to potential land buyers may be dropped as a result of a Los Angeles redevelopment panel’s action this week.

On Thursday, the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency board tentatively approved cutting $481,000 from the North Hollywood redevelopment area’s $7-million budget. The plan was part of a larger proposal to turn over $20 million to the city to ease its financial crunch.

A program that made low-interest loans and grants to homeowners for repairs was cut. But a $192,000 project to spruce up storefronts along Lankershim and Magnolia boulevards was spared. Mildred Weller, co-chair of the North Hollywood Project Area Committee, a citizens group that advises the CRA, was disappointed by the decision.

“All of the funds for the North Hollywood project should have been left in place,” Weller said, adding that if the city takes money from the project, it should be discontinued. Even fully funded, she said, the project has been unsuccessful in fighting blight in the community.

CRA spokesman Marc Littman said the North Hollywood project has substantially improved the community. For example, it helped finance and build nearly 900 new housing units and aided in the rehabilitation of nearly 850 units.

Last spring, during the 1994-95 budget deliberations, the mayor and City Council ordered the CRA to help balance the city’s budget by picking up the tab for assorted municipal projects.

On Thursday, the agency’s board proposed to do $20 million worth of projects, $5 million less than the mayor and council had originally asked for. The board’s proposal would spare some projects in Hollywood, Pico-Union, the harbor area, Chinatown, Little Tokyo and the West Adams district.

Councilman Mike Hernandez, a critic of the transfer plan, predicted that the council may end up taking no funds because of the impact on the redevelopment project areas.

CRA Board Chairman Daniel P. Garcia, who proposed the reduced amount after talking with the mayor’s office and several City Council members, said he hoped the smaller transfer to city coffers would help “restore a more sensible balance” between the city’s need to stay solvent and the agency’s responsibility to fulfill its commitments.