Council Promises Help for Northeast Valley

Citing the plague of blight and poverty in the northeast San Fernando Valley, the Los Angeles City Council moved Tuesday to step up economic development in the area and provide incentives for manufacturing and retail operations.

“This motion is a small step, but a significant step, in one of the long-term initiatives: bringing about economic development and revitalization in one of the hardest-suffering areas of our city,” said Councilman Alex Padilla, who represents much of the area.

Padilla proposed the interim steps after joining in a decision to temporarily halt a controversial plan by the Community Redevelopment Agency to spend $490 million on economic development and affordable housing in the northeast Valley.

The council agreed Tuesday to push a plan that would use more than $1 million in surplus federal grants for several proposals, including a project by the Sun Valley, Pacoima and Sylmar chambers of commerce to develop business attraction and retention programs, and to form an economic alliance to pool their efforts.

The council also agreed to enter negotiations to attract a Denny’s restaurant to Van Nuys Boulevard in Pacoima to address the dearth of full service restaurants in the area, and to urge Industrial Metal Supply Inc. to move from Burbank to Sun Valley.

The city Community Development Department was directed by the council to determine whether $300,000 in block grant funds could be used to subsidize locating the two businesses’ relocation to the area. Council members also asked city departments to come up with a list of priority projects to install sidewalks, street lights and sewer connections in underserved neighborhoods, using about $500,000 of the grant money.

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In Padilla’s 7th Council District, 1,800 residences are not connected to city sewer lines. That is about 10% of the unconnected homes in all of Los Angeles, said David Gershwin, a spokesman for the councilman. It costs about $5,000 to install the average connection, a price many property owners cannot afford.

Taken together, the package of economic development and infrastructure proposals begin to address some of the problems that have long vexed the northeast Valley, said Councilman Joel Wachs, who also represents part of the area.

Council members cited a recent series of reports in The Times that revealed serious shortages of affordable housing, quality jobs and accessible health care in the northeast Valley, contributing to slum conditions in the suburbs. Wachs said the series, by documenting pockets of severe poverty and blight, “paints a very different picture than the stereotypes that many people in substantial portions of the city have regarding the San Fernando Valley.”

The articles, Wachs added: “really do require us focusing on this.”

But some activists complained that Padilla’s $1 million proposal is too little, too late.

“It’s not going to turn around the economy here,” said businessman Victor Carreon. “What we need are good jobs, not a Denny’s. This is Padilla saving face and appearing to do something to get himself reelected.”

Others called the initiative a good beginning.

“A little bit is better than nothing,” said Doris Jacobs, executive director of the Sun Valley Chamber of Commerce.

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One of the worst problems for the northeast Valley is the lack of affordable, quality housing. On Tuesday, the City Council also approved a zoning change that will allow Habitat for Humanity to build 52 condominiums for low-income residents in Pacoima.

“There is a huge demand in that area for this type of housing,” said Habitat’s Elizabeth Lutz. “We are moving people out of garages and school buses into homes so that they can have a higher standard of living.”

One indication of how the demand outstrips the supply: Habitat has already received five times as many applications for the new housing as there are units available.

The group hopes to break ground on the project in the next month.