Card

Defendant, the Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of South Pasadena (hereafter Agency), appeals from a judgment that, among other things, declares invalid the city’s ordinance purporting to amend an existing redevelopment plan for the Monterey Hills area in the city and awarding to plaintiffs’ attorneys legal fees in the amount of $20,400.

The essential basis for the judgment of invalidity is that the city actually adopted a new redevelopment plan under the pretext of amending an existing one.

The Agency principally contends that: (1) the action should have been dismissed for failure of the plaintiffs to fully comply with the procedure required in validation actions and because all irregularities in the redevelopment proceedings under review were cured by the Third Validating Act of 1973; (2) the trial court lacked the requisite constitutional basis for invalidation; (3) the award of attorneys’ fees was improper.

Background

The redevelopment plan for Monterey Hills Redevelopment Project No. 1, as adopted in 1959 by the city, was primarily a plan for the redevelopment of vacant land to upper income residential uses. At the time of the adoption of the challenged…