Group to List Project Spending Priorities

A Canoga Park community group has been asked to create a wish list on how to spend a $1-million windfall the area will receive this year from the city of Los Angeles.

Canoga Park was one of 11 communities chosen for the city’s Targeted Neighborhoods Initiative, a program that will provide $3 million in federal Community Block Grant funds to each of the areas over a three-year period. The Canoga Park/Winnetka Neighborhood Planning Advisory Council, which reviews land-use issues for Councilwoman Laura Chick, is one of several groups asked to provide input on spending priorities.

The money will be used to improve living conditions by bolstering existing social services and improvement plans, said Ken Bernstein, Chick’s planning deputy. “These are all areas that need help in certain ways,” he said Wednesday. “They are bad enough that they need an investment from the public sector to turn things around, but not so bad that they are irredeemable.”

The funds, administered by the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency, may be used for housing, commercial and public improvements, and community service facilities, but not for new social service programs, Bernstein said.

The projects the group discussed at an NPAC meeting Wednesday concerned improvements in the business district, residential areas and community facilities.

One of the more popular projects discussed by the group was an idea to expand and rehabilitate the Guadalupe Center. Several in the audience said they believe the Catholic Charities-run facility has been successful in offering help to the needy and reasoned that suggestions such as a new police substation, a child-care facility and family care center could be easily incorporated into Guadalupe.

Other Valley areas targeted to receive funds are North Hollywood and the Van Nuys Boulevard section of Pacoima.