Redevelopment works

Long-time redevelopment critic and developer Doug Kaplan gets it all wrong when he gripes about the work of redevelopment agencies in California and our city. We have all witnessed firsthand how redevelopment has transformed older, rundown neighborhoods and revitalized them to provide new hope, opportunity, jobs and an economic boost to those communities most in need.

First, some important facts to correct the record: Redevelopment agencies do not divert property taxes from schools or any other government agencies. Redevelopment financing is limited to a portion of property tax revenue that has increased as the result of the redevelopment project. School Districts and other taxing agencies continue to receive the same share of property taxes they received before the redevelopment plan was adopted, as well as a significant and increasing share of any increases that result from redevelopment activities. In other words, redevelopment most often increases money for schools and other local entities by increasing the total pie of available property tax revenues.

Second, the revenue received by a redevelopment agency must be directly reinvested into the community that generated it. Our agency, the Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles (CRA/LA), believes that the rewards of redevelopment should be made available to the people who live and work in our 32 redevelopment project areas throughout the City of Los Angeles. This means that when we reinvest our share of tax revenues, we want our redevelopment activities to foster good jobs for people living in or near our redevelopment project areas, affordable housing for people of limited means and a sustainable environment. A look at just a few of our activities will demonstrate how redevelopment has brought hope and new beginnings to communities most in need. Here are a few examples of some of the benefits redevelopment activities have produced recently in our city:

• Investing in affordable housing projects, such as the 140-unit Morgan Place affordable senior housing development at Crenshaw Boulevard near Florence Avenue that will break ground next month.
• Providing local parks and recreational areas, such as approving $600,000 for the Challengers Boys and Girls Club at 50th Street and Vermont Avenue for the development of a 170-meter oval running track and natural grass soccer field, with high jump and long jump areas, that will be open to the public in an area that is short on public recreational facilities.
• Providing deferred-payment second mortgages to moderate income first-time homebuyers, such as the $2.8 million loan program recently approved to help eligible households purchase homes in the North Hills Villas project. Programs like this make it possible for people with modest incomes to buy homes in Los Angeles’ tight housing market.
• Playing an instrumental part in the North Hollywood commercial core and arts district redevelopment, the Canoga Park Main Street revitalization program and the renaissance of Hollywood.

Yes, some of what redevelopment entails includes the development of shopping centers, but ask the people of Watts if we were wrong to develop the Martin Luther King Watts shopping center. Ask the residents of South Los Angeles if they have benefited from our investment in the development of the Crenshaw-Baldwin Hills shopping center. Ask the people of North Hollywood and Valley Village if they want to redevelop the Valley Plaza shopping center which has not yet recovered from the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

Kaplan simplistically dismisses the desire for “more fabulous shopping centers and ever grander avenues”. The Grand Avenue project in Downtown that he alludes to will consist of up to 2,660 new homes including up to 532 affordable units in the heart of downtown, a 16-acre Civic Park, a five-star hotel, up to 449,000 square feet of retail and public parking. It will involve the investment of about $2 billion in private funds. It is anticipated that this project will result in 29,000 prevailing wage construction jobs and 5,900 permanent jobs, all subject to the CRA’s Living Wage Policy, with a significant commitment to local hiring. We don’t need to repeat all the praise this project has gotten. Suffice it to say that Kaplan is wrong to dismiss it.

We are proud of all of our accomplishments and believe that redevelopment is a vital function to improve the lives of all who live and work in our City.

William H. Jackson and Madeline Janis are chair and vice-chair, respectively, of the Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles.