Fullerton : Property Owner Told to Demolish Houses

A 74-year-old Fullerton resident who lost her battle against City Hall has put her property up for sale as the city prepares to demolish her dilapidated houses.

Last week, the Planning Commission voted 4 to 3 to demolish the one-story houses at 130, 132 and 134 S. Highland Ave. because they are health hazards, said Paul Dudley, the city’s development services director. The city began abandonment proceedings to demolish the houses following a phone call in March from one of the owner’s sisters, Dudley said.

Juanita Denni, who has lived in Fullerton for about 70 years, was “astonished to find out it was her sisters” who called the city, said her attorney, Judith Kaluzny. Denni only learned of her sisters’ action at the commission meeting last week. She and her attorney appealed to city officials to let her keep the houses if she would refurbish them. The commission denied their appeal.

“Now she’s staying at the Casa Santa Ana (for senior citizens) and she’s not happy there,” Kaluzny said.

Denni was confined at a hospital when the city began the abandonment procedures, Kaluzny said. Police had found Denni in a disoriented state near her home Feb. 6 and took her to La Habra Community Hospital, where she stayed for two weeks. In the meantime, the city boarded up the properties.

Denni had lived in one of the homes before she was hospitalized and, Kaluzny said, she had allowed veterans to remain in two of the houses rent free. Kaluzny said that Denni, a former orange picker, lives on money from a trust administered through the family.

City officials said the property became so run-down that it was uninhabitable. Kaluzny agreed that there is “no doubt” about the homes’ conditions, but she disagreed, she said, with the way city officials handled the case.

“It seems that everyone had known about it for years, but no one had done anything about it. Just slam, get rid of them--with no warnings,” she said.

Denni has until mid-June to demolish the houses or the city will do it for her at a charge, Dudley said. Kaluzny estimated that the property is worth about $55,000 with the houses and $35,000 for the land alone.