Planning Under New L.A. Charter

* “Finding Neighborhoods in L.A.” (editorial, Dec. 5) bares the hypocrisy of charter reform, sold to the public as a transfer of power from distant downtown interests to ordinary citizens. Instead, “local” planning commissions with jurisdictions over populations of 250,000 to a million or so will be “advised” by local councils on projects of merely local import. But approval of major regional projects will remain where it always was--downtown.

Projects of regional significance (which you define as museums, major shopping malls and their ilk) have far greater impact on local communities than the mini-mart at the corner gas station, if such major projects are located in residential areas. Why is the input of local councils less relevant when the local impact is more severe?

We didn’t need charter reform to give us the right to “advise” the city about anything; that was ours all along. We didn’t need charter reform to create neighborhood/community councils; a dozen or more communities have had them for up to a quarter century, either self-created or authorized by sympathetic City Council offices.

Charter reform gives community and neighborhood councils nothing they don’t have (or couldn’t have had) all along. Instead, it seeks to minimize the legitimate influence of local councils over projects that have the greatest impact. You are right about one thing: In Los Angeles today, our neighbors are all of those throughout the city with whom we share the common goal of controlling the destinies of our neighborhoods and communities. All of us are cheated by the intent to concentrate power over major projects downtown and to limit the oversight of local councils. We need not seek common ground; we stand on it.

RUBELL HELGESON

Pacific Palisades