Emergency Redevelopment Areas Proposed : Recovery: Special provisions of state law allow local agencies to designate neighborhoods without finishing lengthy environmental studies. Six Valley and Hollywood zones are targeted.

In the latest effort to hasten the city’s quake recovery, Los Angeles redevelopment officials recommended Monday establishing emergency redevelopment areas in six quake-ravaged areas in the San Fernando Valley and Hollywood.

Generally, the proposed areas are scattered around the damaged neighborhoods, reflecting the meandering nature of the quake’s destruction, with the biggest areas near the epicenter in Northridge, Chatsworth, North Hills and Granada Hills.

The proposal would take advantage of emergency provisions of the state’s redevelopment law that allow local agencies to establish project areas in disaster zones without completing the time-consuming environmental studies required when traditional redevelopment areas are established.

Under the law, local redevelopment agencies can keep all the property tax generated by new construction in a project area and use that money to pay for improvements, such as new streets, parks and sewers, as well as loans for quake victims.

Although the city has rushed to establish the project areas to meet the state’s emergency guidelines, the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency delayed until Friday a vote to launch the proposal because some agency members said they needed more time to study the plan.

“It’s a decision being asked for, in my opinion, in an outrageous manner,” said CRA member Bobbi Fiedler, who complained that she received a copy of the proposal report just before Monday’s CRA meeting.

At the meeting, redevelopment officials asked the CRA for authority to begin a 60-day investigation to assess the damage in the so-called “study areas” and craft quake recovery strategies for each area.

The final decision on whether to establish the project areas would be made at a joint meeting of the City Council and the CRA following that 60-day period.

The CRA’s decision Monday to further delay launching the program prompted a warning from CRA staff and city attorneys that the city may jeopardize the effort if the approval process is delayed past Friday.

The city must establish the zones soon if it intends to characterize them as emergency areas, said Deputy City Atty. Marcia Gonzales-Kimbrough. Otherwise, she said, the emergency provision could be challenged in court.

There is no deadline for establishing a project area, but she said cities in Northern California have established emergency areas within nine months of such disasters as the Loma Prieta quake and the Oakland fires.

Another reason the CRA is under the gun, Gonzales-Kimbrough said is that Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky has insisted on voting for the proposal before he leaves office Dec. 2 to begin his term as a county supervisor. One of the proposed redevelopment areas is in Yaroslavsky’s district along Ventura Boulevard and in other major commercial zones in Sherman Oaks.

“This (delay) pushes us closer and closer to our deadline,” said Yaroslavsky aide Vivian Rescalvo.

Other proposed redevelopment areas are located:

* In the west San Fernando Valley, where an area is proposed generally along Sherman Way, Reseda Boulevard, Canoga Avenue and Topanga Canyon Boulevard.

* In Hollywood, where areas would be established around Hollywood Boulevard near North Vermont Avenue and near the intersection of Beverly Boulevard and New Hampshire Avenue.

* In the northeast Valley, where an area would be spread throughout commercial and residential areas in Mission Hills, Pacoima and Sylmar. Another area would be established in North Hollywood along Laurel Canyon, Burbank, Victory and Lankershim boulevards.

Existing traditional redevelopment areas in Hollywood, North Hollywood and Downtown have been plagued by controversy, particularly regarding the CRA’s power to condemn and take over private property.

To quell similar fears about the quake redevelopment areas, city officials have met with residents and business owners in the proposed areas to assure them that condemnation powers will be used only in extreme cases.

Reactions have so far been cautiously optimistic.

William Powers, president of the Chatsworth Chamber of Commerce said he fully supports the proposal.

“The chamber loves it,” he said. “We look upon this as an opportunity for the city to come back--and come back stronger than ever before.”

However, Tom Hilborn, president of the Reseda Chamber of Commerce, said he needs to study the plan further before giving it his complete support.

“We are investigating it,” he said. “But it seems on the surface to be very good.”