Face Lift Due Anaheim Neighborhood : City, New Karcher/Barry Firm Plan to Renovate Chevy Chase

The City of Anaheim agreed Tuesday to help a developer with a plan to buy and rehabilitate the entire Chevy Chase neighborhood, a collection of rundown apartment buildings that the city has been trying to clean up for years.

In a joint venture, hamburger magnate Carl Karcher and developer Terrance K. Barry plan to buy all 392 units in the square-mile neighborhood, which has kept code enforcement officials busy with its mostly dilapidated and overcrowded apartment buildings.

“We think this is about the only way left that hasn’t been tried,” said Norman J. Priest, Anaheim’s community development and planning executive director.

Could Use Condemnation

If Karcher/Barry Co. can acquire 85% of the units from willing landlords, the city could help it acquire the remaining 15% through condemnation. So far, the company has an agreement with one landlord, John Rampello, to purchase 168 units, Barry said, adding that the company already owns another 12 units.

Karcher/Barry Co. is jointly owned by Karcher, founder of the Anaheim-based Carl’s Jr. fast-food chain, and Barry, an Anaheim developer. Karcher, who moved to Anaheim 49 years ago to take a job in his uncle’s feed store, has long been active in city affairs.

Some landlords have already expressed a reluctance to sell their property, but Barry could not say how many. “I don’t know if we will be able to get 85%,” he said.

If his firm buys the required number of units, Barry said he will rehabilitate both the interior and exterior of the 20-year-old buildings.

Although Chevy Chase, part of the larger Patrick Henry neighborhood, has improved substantially in the past five years, there are still plumbing, electrical and other problems which are the result of absentee landlords, according to John Poole, supervisor of the city’s code enforcement department.

Once completed, the project’s estimated cost will be in excess of $25 million, Barry said.

The city, in approving a memorandum of understanding Tuesday, will set aside $500,000, which could be used for relocation, Priest said. To seal the process of acquisition and implement the program, the city and the developer must still enter into an agreement.

Because many of the apartments are overcrowded, officials said they will set up a relocation program, with on-site interviews, to help families find a new place to live. A two-bedroom apartment, which sometimes houses two or more families, rents for between $450 and $500 monthly, Barry said. He could not estimate what the rent will be for the apartments once they are renovated.

By bringing the properties under one owner, city officials hope to do away with both the structural and social decline of the predominantly Latino neighborhood, which also was cited in a youth crime study as an area with the potential for gang activity.