Council OKs Cash to Help Valley Chambers Attract Business

Hoping to spur growth in a sagging section of the San Fernando Valley, the Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday approved $150,000 for three local chambers of commerce to create economic development plans.

The Sun Valley, Pacoima and Sylmar chambers each will receive up to $50,000 under a plan pushed by Councilman Alex Padilla, who represents the area. The money will pay for consultants to help devise ways to attract businesses to the northeast Valley, a low-income region dotted with industrial strips and undeveloped land.

Local business leaders welcomed the cash, saying more needs to be done to promote the region’s assets--including relatively low rents and a willing supply of laborers--to businesses that might want to move in.

“If you say Sun Valley, people think you’re talking about a ski resort in Idaho,” said Carol Silver, a board member and past president of the Sun Valley Chamber of Commerce. “If you’re not in the auto wrecking or waste management business, people don’t know you’re here. We need to put ourselves on the map.”

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The move to bolster the chambers comes in the wake of a decision last year to postpone a controversial redevelopment plan for the northeast Valley. The city’s Community Redevelopment Agency proposed spending $490 million to revive almost 7,000 acres, but the agency’s spotty track record on other projects spawned doubts about its ability to carry out the massive revitalization.

Opponents warned that the CRA would control too much land and drive out merchants and residents while wasting tax dollars. As the debate heated--passions ran so high that one community meeting erupted into a fistfight--Padilla decided to shelve the project for two years.

Meanwhile, the City Council began considering small-scale initiatives, such as street lighting improvements, that could help nudge the area toward a rebirth. The annual per capita income in the northeast Valley is about half that of the city as a whole.

The city persuaded a Burbank metal supply company and its 150 workers to move to Sun Valley, but other efforts have stalled.

Padilla said he will keep a tight focus on projects driven by local residents and business leaders.

“One of the lessons that was loud and clear from the [CRA’s] redevelopment proposal was that the area was too large, that there wasn’t a focus,” the councilman said. “This is an attempt to take three of the neediest areas in the northeast Valley and to try to develop a plan from the bottom up. This will be driven by the local community, with the technical assistance of experts.”