Heritage conservation in post-redevelopment Los Angeles: evaluating the impact of the Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles (CRA/LA) on the historic built environment

2013-10-04Redevelopment agencies (RDAs) were a key local economic development tool in California for more than six decades, but were eliminated in 2012 in response to the state’s ballooning budget deficit. The dissolution of redevelopment is projected to yield wide-reaching policy implications; however, since the relationship between redevelopment and the historic built environment has not yet been addressed at length, the ramifications of redevelopment’s demise on heritage conservation is difficult to predict. This thesis uses this dearth of information as a window of opportunity to learn more about this relationship as it pertains to one particular RDA: the Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles (CRA/LA). Seven case study redevelopment projects in downtown Los Angeles that were associated with CRA/LA and included a conservation component are addressed at length to provide information toward this end. Analysis of these case studies reveals that CRA/LA demonstrated a commitment to heritage conservation, exhibited good stewardship of historic properties, and played an influential—and often critical—role in bringing conservation projects to fruition. Thus, the dissolution of CRA/LA is likely to produce negative impacts on future efforts to conserve the historic built environment in downtown Los Angeles