Renewal Plan Approved for 4 Riot-Torn Areas : Council: Project reflects a new aim for redevelopment agency--to preserve and improve existing neighborhoods.

Reflecting a change in focus for urban renewal programs, a project to redevelop four areas in the riot-torn Crenshaw-Slauson section of Los Angeles won strong approval Tuesday from the City Council.

The 13-0 vote, after the council’s joint public hearing with the Community Redevelopment Agency, launches a coordinated effort to turn around some of the neighborhoods hardest hit in the 1992 riots after the first trial of police officers involved in the beating of black motorist Rodney G. King.

“This is essentially what the CRA should be doing,” the agency’s new administrator, John Molloy, told council members. He said this and several other recovery projects in the pipeline are being watched across the nation as the embattled agency works to redefine its mission--and improve its image.

The controversial CRA--which promoted construction of Downtown skyscrapers after demolishing the run-down neighborhood of historic Victorian homes on Bunker Hill--has increasingly concentrated on helping neighborhoods hurt by the riots and the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

Moves such as the Bunker Hill project led to criticism that the CRA was razing struggling neighborhoods and replacing them with commercial centers aimed at bringing in big money. The new project reflects a new aim--to preserve and improve existing neighborhoods.

Molloy, who arrived from Sacramento in September to lead the agency, said the emphasis now is on trying to “figure out urban renewal from a neighborhood perspective, with the input of the citizens of the area.”

The new 262-acre project is aimed at eliminating blight and encouraging more commercial activity in neighborhoods around heavily traveled Crenshaw Boulevard and Slauson, Van Ness and Florence avenues. Exact improvements have not been drawn up, but would include renovating buildings, helping out existing businesses and attracting new ones, as well as street beautification and cleanup programs.

The neighborhoods suffer from high crime, empty storefronts, dilapidated buildings, vandalism and graffiti, while jobs and decent, affordable homes and apartments are scarce, CRA officials said. Twenty-nine properties in the area were damaged or destroyed during the riots, and several of those remain vacant three years later. As with other CRA projects, this one would be paid for from tax money generated by improved property values.

Councilwoman Ruth Galanter, who initiated the 25-year project with the CRA, said it represents the collective efforts of the agency, several city departments and the two other council members in the area, Nate Holden and Mark Ridley-Thomas.

Noting that the Crenshaw area is the focus of a major transit improvement campaign, Ridley-Thomas said the neighborhoods targeted by the new project “could be among the most significant redevelopment areas” in the city. The project provides “an opportunity to use a variety of approaches and funds,” he said.

Unlike the hearings on many previous CRA projects, this one drew more supporters than opponents. Several residents and business owners said the project was their best hope for battling crime and boosting property values in the area.

Opponent Lynn Wilson said she feared the agency would use its power of eminent domain to condemn property in the area. But Molloy said the CRA will not take any occupied residential property and would condemn a commercial parcel only if the citizens Project Area Committee, the CRA board and the City Council all agreed it should be done.