Northeast Valley Redevelopment Project Put on Indefinite Hold

A Los Angeles City Council committee on Wednesday put the brakes on an ambitious redevelopment project in the northeast San Fernando Valley, approving a motion to disband the elected group that oversaw the program.

The committee’s action puts an indefinite hold on a plan to establish a redevelopment area of 6,835 acres in which developers can buy and build on blighted properties. But it does not kill the proposal.

Placing most of the blame on the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency, Councilman Alex Padilla said he lacked confidence that the agency would adequately supervise the project, and said the CRA was “not ready to take on the job.”

Wednesday’s vote by the council’s Housing and Community Redevelopment Committee followsseveral weeks of tumult within the Northeast Valley community and among members of the Project Area Committee who were elected to oversee the project. Earlier this month, the committee voted to disband after failing to end divisive bickering over the proposal.

The full council is expected to approve both of Padilla’s motions, which call for dismantling the Northeast Valley committee and removing the potential for use of eminent domain on residential properties in the project. On the committee, councilmen Nick Pacheco and Nate Holden voted for both motions; Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg was absent.

CRA Administrator Jerry Scharlin did not address the council panel, but after the meeting he said Padilla’s comments were “a little unfair” and described redevelopment projects as a lightning rod throughout the city.

“This is a very difficult political environment, with secessionists and naysayers,” Scharlin said. “It’s truly an area that needs help, but instead of focusing on that issue, it becomes a political football.”

CRA officials believe this is the first time a Project Area Committee has been disbanded before a redevelopment project was approved by the City Council.

A dozen people spoke at Wednesday’s hearing, with those for and against Padilla’s motions evenly split in the audience.

Caron Caines, the committee’s chairwoman and an attorney at San Fernando Valley Neighborhood Legal Services, said she watched as her group’s meetings eroded into bitter disagreements--and even a fistfight--with little progress made on the project. She thought the committee, on which she has served since 1997, should be dissolved.

But another member, Arthur Sweet, from the Sun Valley Chamber of Commerce, saw the committee as the first step toward improving blighted areas, and suggested focusing on four or five smaller sections of the Northeast Valley instead of a broader area.

Despite those concerns, Padilla was confident the proposed project “still would remain one of the largest redevelopment areas in the city.”

Before voting, Pacheco stood firm about the committee’s not using the word “moratorium” in its recommendation to the council, because he said the influential Valley Industry & Commerce Association wants all CRA projects halted while a secession study is being conducted.

“I think that is crazy,” Pacheco said. “I think the city should continue doing its good work in the other areas that have been benefiting from redevelopment projects.”

Secession concerns, Padilla said, did play a role in his decision to delay the project because redevelopment might complicate the process of municipal divorce.

On that issue, a Valley Industry & Commerce official said the organization viewed the CRA’s projects as possibly hurting the secession study underway. No current legislation allows the transfer of debt or revenues from a redevelopment project to a newly formed city, said Scott O. Schmidt, the authority’s government liaison director.

“Until this issue is resolved, we don’t want to go indebting citizens of Los Angeles or a new city,” Schmidt said.