Power of Redevelopment Officials to Be Challenged : North Hollywood: Seven newcomers on citizens panel want the City Council to strip the agency of its eminent domain and taxation authority.

A day after they swept to victory on a tide of local resentment, newcomers on North Hollywood’s redevelopment committee were preparing for a fight.

Seven new members of the citizens committee that advises the city on redevelopment in North Hollywood vowed Wednesday to block an effort to renew the Community Redevelopment Agency’s crucial powers of land seizure and taxation. That is expected to set up a fight with those already on the committee over the future direction of the panel and the area.

In one of the best-attended elections since redevelopment was begun in North Hollywood 15 years ago, the seven candidates from a slate organized by critics of redevelopment won seats Tuesday night on the 25-member Project Area Committee, ousting all but one of the incumbents who ran in contested races.

The new members--joined by the one incumbent who survived--all were supported by North Hollywood Concerned Citizens, a community group formed last year to oppose the current direction of redevelopment in the area.

The group argues that the agency has been promoting high-rise construction at the expense of other uses, such as single-family residences, low-cost housing and small businesses.

The bloc will be unable to dominate the committee however, because it includes only eight of the 19 current members. Six seats are vacant.

Candidates assembled by the group range from an interior designer who owns property within the redevelopment zone to a music student who lives there. All expressed differing views of the most desirable future for North Hollywood. But all were united in their opposition to renewing the agency’s powers of eminent domain and taxation in the North Hollywood redevelopment zone.

The agency uses eminent domain to compel property owners to sell so that it can assemble tracts for development. The taxation power is used to collect money from property owners in the redevelopment zone to finance additional revitalization efforts.

The agency’s power of eminent domain will expire Feb. 21 and will be more difficult to renew without the committee’s support.

Mildred Weller, who won a seat in Tuesday’s election and is president of the dissident group, said the area should be revitalized through natural economic changes aided by low-interest loans and other programs.

The cause championed by the newcomers is at odds with the policies supported by many of those already on the committee, some of whom have served several terms. Just how deeply the split will divide the committee remains to be seen, said Donald Spivack, the agency’s director of operations.

Redevelopment officials are now formulating a request to the City Council to renew the agency’s land seizure and tax powers in North Hollywood for 12 years, a decision Spivack said will take 18 months to two years.

Although the volunteer committee basically serves as an advisory group to the agency’s planners, it has substantial power over the renewal request.

If the committee votes to support renewal, the request needs to win approval in the City Council by a simple majority vote to take effect. But if committee members reject the plan, the council must override their decision by a two-thirds majority, which could be difficult for the politically embattled agency to muster.

Residents of the redevelopment zone, and those who own property or businesses there, were eligible to vote in the election Tuesday night at the First United Methodist Church of North Hollywood. Nearly 40 candidates competed for the 17 open seats

Others elected to contested posts were Don Eaton, Jack Elliot, Joe Calabrase, Ellen Thomas, Ann Hoyt and Grace Warwick. Committee member Maria Fant was reelected. Incumbents Fred Bower, Don Eitner and Diana Hoffman ran unopposed.

Six seats were left vacant because no other candidates received 50% of the vote.

Spivack said the seats will be filled after new election procedures are approved by the City Council.