KTLA News: "Chinatown redevelopment plan public hearing" (1980)

the Chinese interpretation is not the only thing unusual about the public hearing on the Chinatown Redevelopment plan the city council and the board of directors of the community redevelopment agency were meeting in joint session to conduct the public hearing the whole thing played to a packed house the Chinatown Redevelopment plan has been in the works for several years now but in spite of the fact that there's been broad-based public involvement in its development the plan still draws criticism not only because of the changes it will bring about but the way the CRA plans to implement it CRA has threatened that unless Chinatown approves this plan all service monies will be lost asian-americans for equality have considered its desires for redevelopment and we have also considered the consequences of Chinatown losing its NSA status in formulating our opposition to the Redevelopment plan uh we have decided that this plan would pose a great threat to the community it must be opposed since it lacks any of the guarantees that the community lacks the guarantees that the community would be benefited by it the Chinatown Redevelopment plan involves slightly more than 300 acres an area with 6,500 people living in it while there's a lot of new construction in Chinatown these days the CRA says there are pockets of blight but instead of the approach taken in other urban renewal projects there will be no large scale clearing operations the CRA says Rehabilitation will be done on a selective basis with the first priority being housing for low and moderate income families and senior citizens later phases of the plan would involve light Industrial Development commercial areas and public facilities the total price tag for the Chinatown Redevelopment program comes to more than $75 million in the first phase the city would ask the federal government for $10 million in money to get a certain number of projects underway in Chinatown Mike botula reporting for News at 10 [Music] think business community and assisting small business through commercial re project area committee priorities was carried out 21,000 uh in in implementation in the Redevelopment program uh the Redevelopment plan was modified today and this is an estimation that was that was stating the transportation in the state law that permit a waiver of this respons the environmental import impact report eir of the Redevelopment plan makes an optimistic projection that a maximum net increase of 1,865 dwelling units may result from the Redevelopment Act activities it fails however to project how many and whether there will be an increase or decrease in the number of affordable dwelling units for senior citizens and lowincome people existing jobs next preserving we project a housing Rehabilitation of over 600 dwellings uh commercial development of approximately a million square feet light Industrial Development we have projected uh uh costs and revenues for the project uh and expect uh U significant uh financial support for the project from and for other um Community needs to be built in Chinatown and um Redevelopment is needed to underwrite the cost of land for these needs to meet these needs for of the money the CRA uses to improve these areas comes from the property owners's tax payer pay we we voted for prop this morning is to draw your attention to the fact that three blocks south of Sunset Boulevard have been included in the proposed project boundaries of the Chinatown Redevelopment plan we feel that this area should be excluded from the following re for the following reasons this area is presently a part of the Los Angeles Central City plan adopted after much study in 1974 the reasons for including the area development of Chinatown but we do oppose uh this present plan uh the community needs Redevelopment because we need money for Housing Services better traffic circulation systems expansion of castor school for the library for recreational space and we also need Redevelopment in order to be declared a neighborhood strategy area and um and I guess the a point to make about Chinatown is that um we need Redevelopment in Chinatown not because it's economically a depressed area but because Chinatown is in a period of rap rapid commercial development and this growth has resulted in driving land prices up so high that um it's unfeasible for uh Community uh services and for has been a take it or leave it uh position we're given the choice of either supporting the plan as proposed by CRA or having none at all some of the people in the audience here today support the plan not because the plan is responsive to community needs needs but because it's the only plan that CRA has offered they support the plan because it would give Chinatown and neighborhood strategy area status and thus be eligible for Community block rant funds Social Services get Mr Jack La I mean there's a critical need for a better and more housing for senior citizens and low and moderate income families and although housing is a stated [Music] priority the solutions advocated by the Redevelopment plan fail to even attempt to provide for the needs of those presently living in the community especially the low-income families why do we say this let's look at what the plan actually says project area available to low income in senior citizens will in fact decrease rather than increase as a result of Redevelopment okay this sphere is based on the following premises first of all the plan calls for the removal of 287 units since the units to be removed will be dilapidated and unfit or inappropriate for rehabilitation there are clearly units of low income of the low-income people although the plan calls for the construction of the of replacement housing with within four years following the removal of the units it fails to provide a specific schedule when such replacement housing will be built for safety needs of the community the plan proposes to increase the traffic flow and make it more hazardous for pedestrian even the transportation Department's response of two years ago to two years ago to the environmental impact report showed the recognition that Redevelopment would cause massive traffic problems and it would cause massive ra uh massive traffic problems Redevelopment would create such problems as well as intensify the present problems and it recognized that unless an area wide areawide improvements are made now and not on a peace meal basis that there will be adver severe adverse impacts in the in the community in addition Redevelopment will cause a great increase in the amount of traffic to over 47,000 additional commuter traffic away from Chinatown especially from the residential areas currently there Chinatown Redevelopment epic the Chinese interpretation is not the only thing unusual about the public hearing on the Chinatown Redevelopment plan the city council and the board of directors of the community redevelopment agency were meeting in joint session to conduct the public hearing start again forgot to continue