Fullerton : City Likely to Condemn Buildings to Add Parking

The City Council on Tuesday is expected to condemn several buildings across from the Fullerton Transportation Center to build a $2.2-million parking structure, over the objections of property owners and tenants who want to remain.

The buildings consisting of a pottery gallery, a battery shop and two small houses, are on the corner of South Pomona and Santa Fe avenues.

Two of the three property owners do not want to sell their buildings, which is why the city is using condemnation proceedings, said Councilman Chris Norby, who objects to the project.

“Why displace viable, thriving businesses. Why not build some place where you don’t have to relocate anyone?” he said.

For several years, the city has planned to raze the structure, but demolition was postponed until the Fullerton Transportation Center was finished.

The center, once a railroad station, was renovated and turned into a commercial complex, including an office building, an Amtrak station. restaurant and bus terminal. The construction was finished last summer.

Critics of the parking structure idea argue that the parking lot next to the center is never full.

“To tear this (building) down to put in a parking structure, when it seems they have ample parking around the facility, is a waste of the city’s time and taxpayers’ money,” said 15-year-tenant James Kachler, owner of James Kachler Stoneware at 122 S. Pomona Ave.

A city parking analysis of the area shows that the center needs at least 200 more parking spaces, said Redevelopment Agency spokesman Terry Swindle.

Kachler said that he and his landlord, Carl Kymla, have alternate plans for the brick buildings, including giving them a “face lift” and replacing the pottery store and battery shop with an art gallery and restaurant.

One of the buildings has some historic significance, Kachler says, because it was once used as the workshop for Leo Fender, a Buena Park native who was the first to mass-produce electric guitars.