Bylaws of Lawndale Redevelopment Agency Draw Fire

Members of the newly formed Lawndale Redevelopment Agency merely wanted to adopt bylaws Thursday night, but that was enough to draw objections from a small group of community activists who vigorously oppose government involvement in redevelopment.

The activists, all of whom lobbied against the city’s previous redevelopment efforts, alleged that the agency’s operating procedures are in direct conflict with the city’s 1976 General Plan, which is being revised.

The bylaws adopted Thursday allow the city to use eminent domain to acquire blighted properties. But the council critics contend the agency is barred from using eminent domain by revisions made to the General Plan in 1979, which they say allow only for private redevelopment--that is, revitalization by property owners themselves.

“You’re going to have everyone and his brother down here” protesting if the agency endorses a redevelopment project that uses eminent domain, warned longtime resident Steve Mino, a retired machinist and carpet store owner.

But City Atty. David J. Aleshire disputed allegations that the General Plan allows only for private redevelopment.

“The fact that the General Plan says that the city needs to be revitalized through private redevelopment doesn’t mean there can’t be any other kind of redevelopment,” Aleshire said.

City Manager John E. Nowak, agreed, saying the council’s creation of a redevelopment agency last month “has absolutely nothing to do” with the status of the city’s General Plan and called the objections bogus and totally unwarranted.

“All the bylaws do is set up an order and procedure for the agency,” Nowak said. “The bylaws do not authorize the agency to do anything.”

He said pending revisions to the General Plan may include a section about redevelopment and that the concerns raised by Mino and others would be addressed when the city has established the scope of its redevelopment area, a process that involves ample community input.

Under the bylaws unanimously adopted Thursday, the agency gave itself “all the rights, powers, duties, privileges and immunities” established by state community redevelopment law--which includes the power of eminent domain, the process by which a government body can acquire private property for public use as long as the owners are justly compensated.

Redevelopment law states that only properties within blighted areas are eligible to be acquired under eminent domain.

The agency will meet at 6:30 p.m. on the first and third Thursday of every month, before the regularly scheduled council meetings. Council members, who also serve as the agency’s members, will receive up to $30 for each redevelopment meeting they attend, but for no more than four meetings in a calendar month. Nowak, who acts as the agency’s executive director and is allowed to sign all contracts, deeds and obligations of less than $5,000, receives no compensation.

The agency also unanimously adopted a conflict-of-interest code that requires the members to disclose their finances and prohibits them from participating in any decision in which they have a financial interest.

Council members, who created the agency to generate additional tax revenue in the city, virtually promised last month that they would restrict redevelopment to the city’s commercial zones. But community activist Nancy Marthens remained skeptical Thursday and criticized the agency for not making those intentions explicit in its bylaws.

The bylaws “do not restrict this agency in any way to commercial development but give you full authority to take similar action on residential development as well,” Marthens said.

Nowak, however, said Marthens’ concerns would be taken up when specific project areas and plans are developed, which city officials estimate will take at least nine months.