Bernson Pushes Redevelopment Plan

Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson met with about 30 Northridge property owners and business tenants Thursday night to make his case for redeveloping their property, but many of them left unpersuaded.

Under a Bernson proposal to the Planning Commission, about 40 acres of a commercial and industrial area north of Parthenia Street and east of Vanalden Avenue would be studied by the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency to determine whether it is sufficiently blighted to qualify for redevelopment status.

But several the property owners at Thursday’s meeting in Northridge said they do not believe that their area is blighted. Some accused Bernson of planning to use the redevelopment process to condemn their land so the city could purchase it for less than its market value.

Could Participate

Bernson countered that they would be able to participate in the redevelopment themselves.

“Eminent domain is a last resort,” he said. “It is a thing that is used when nothing else will work, when you have somebody who is absolutely unwilling to clean up his property.”

The City Council is expected to consider Bernson’s redevelopment proposal in October. If the area qualifies for redevelopment under state law, the Community Redevelopment Agency would borrow funds to provide loans and other funds to upgrade the area into a business park. The agency would pay back the borrowed funds with the increased tax revenues from the land as its value increases.

One of the landowners opposed to the redevelopment, Walter N. Prince, is circulating petitions to recall Bernson.