First of two parts
(See pdf below)
An ambitious, visionary businessman curved himself into a comfortable chair in the glamourous lobby of the Culver Hotel yesterday morning.
Gazing toward a picture window, he anxiously wondered about the imminent and the long-term future, across the street, of the still-hollow, still-exotic, still mysterious plot of land in Downtown known as Parcel B.
On Monday evening at the 7 o’clock City Council meeting, the Council will take one small step for Culver City mankind, minimally advancing prospective development by approving terms of sale entered into with the prospective builder last Jan. 31.
But they may as well support the sale to the sculpted version of town founder Harry Culver, parked in front of the hotel.
What Is It Worth?
The deed won’t be worth the computer it was written on unless a heretofore obscure state agency, the instantly powerful Dept. of Finance, approves the transaction.
That could happen in the second half of this calendar year, next year, beyond that – or never.
City Hall plus the potential builder and his 500 most intimate pals can conduct all-night prayer vigils until their prayer books wear out, and the entirety of those wishes and efforts will be meaningless, say city officials, until the state makes a light turn green. Or keeps it on red.
This kind of iron control was one of the central reasons Gov. Brown destroyed the state’s 400 Redevelopment Agencies – which went out of business on Feb. 1 – to seize truly meaningful government authority from the now-meaningless fists of communities around the state.
New Panels on the Block
The demise of Culver City’s Redevelopment Agency has given birth to newfangled panels with abstract names – the Successor Agency, a local concoction, and the Oversight Board, a fractionally local concoction – that must give relatively empty approval signals.
The Council sits as the Successor Agency, just as it used to morph into the Redevelopment Agency in the old days that were good. However, since the Oversight Board includes a number of out-of-towners, the deal is no cinch to pass this body.
Even if it does sail over the half-finished line, it still must scale the lethal and imposing mountain that is the state.
No one within the confines of Culver City has the vaguest notion when the decision will be rendered or what constraints will be placed on City Hall.
(To be continued)
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