Sherman Oaks : City Ends CRA Quake Recovery Project

At the behest of residents in Sherman Oaks and Studio City, the Los Angeles City Council voted Wednesday to do away with a controversial emergency earthquake recovery project for those communities.

The project was one of six efforts adopted last year in the San Fernando Valley and Hollywood to use the taxing and condemnation powers of the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency to speed up earthquake repairs.

But homeowners in Sherman Oaks protested the project and filed a lawsuit, saying the redevelopment project was unneeded. They have also said they worry about the CRA’s checkered history in running redevelopment projects elsewhere in the city.

The council’s action makes good on a promise by Councilman Mike Feuer, who was elected in July to represent Sherman Oaks and adjacent communities. During his campaign, Feuer vowed to end the project and instead rely on other city resources, such as funding from the city’s Housing Department, to help rebuild the communities.

The CRA project was approved at the urging of Feuer’s predecessor, Zev Yaroslavsky, who resigned from the council in December 1994 after being elected to the County Board of Supervisors.

Matt Epstein, a Sherman Oaks homeowners and vocal opponent of the project, thanked Feuer on Wednesday for pushing to end the program early, adding that Sherman Oaks is quickly recovering.

“Sherman Oaks is on a terrific recovery,” he said.

CRA officials estimated that the city spent $450,000 to set up the project and had planned to spend another $100,000 to pay for a series of hearings and studies needed to end the project.

But at Feuer’s request, the council shortened the process by holding only one joint meeting of the council and the CRA, thus reducing the cost of ending the project to less than $20,000.