EDITORIAL TAKE A SECOND LOOK CRA SHOULD PROCEED CAREFULLY WITH QUESTIONABLE SOUTH L.A. DEVELOPMENT.

THE last thing Robert ``Bud'' Ovrom, new administrator of the Community Redevelopment Agency, needs to start off his tenure is a fresh CRA scandal.

So he might want to put the planned Marlton Square project in South Los Angeles - which will be up for CRA approval today - on hold.

The development has won the vigorous support of Mayor James Hahn, who has made the unprecedented move of working outside the CRA to secure its financing. But there's reason to be concerned.

Politically connected developer Christopher Hammond and his company, Capital Vision Equities, are under a dark cloud of financial and ethical questions. Dun & Bradstreet has given CVE dismal ratings for ``financial stress'' and creditworthiness. And Ovrom has called for an investigation of Hammond's wife, Ayahlushim, a CRA manager, for allegedly using her pull to steer public money to her husband's projects.

With all the controversy surrounding the Marlton Square development, a breather is in order. The CRA ought to wait until all ethical and financial questions have been answered before committing taxpayers to a dubious and expensive deal for decades to come.