Pulidos Lose New Fight Over Shopping Center : Builder Wins Order Against Interference After Sidewalk Dispute Threatens Project’s Opening

An immigrant family that once fought Santa Ana City Hall and successfully defeated plans to demolish its small downtown muffler shop was back in court Monday.

Ace Muffler Shop, run by family patriarch Miguel Armando Pulido, was back in court, still fighting over the East 1st Street shopping center, which is scheduled to open Friday.

But instead of fighting City Hall this time, the family was part of it. And instead of winning, the Pulido family lost.

The family--including City Councilman Miguel Pulido Jr., who was elected last year largely because of the attention from the fight to save the shop--was faced with a court order prohibiting further interference with the opening of the shopping center.

Urbatec, the Santa Monica developer picked by the city to build the center, claimed that a dispute with the Pulido family over a sidewalk threatened to disrupt the long-delayed grand opening. The $6.5-million shopping center was built around the muffler shop after the family launched a campaign to save, rather than relocate, its store.

After hearing arguments, Orange County Superior Court Judge Tully H. Seymour said he will sign a preliminary injunction forbidding the Pulidos from blocking or interfering in any way with traffic over the disputed land, pending a full hearing.

The Pulidos alleged that Urbatec destroyed a 10-foot-wide sidewalk running along the side of their shop. Urbatec workers tore up the sidewalk and paved it over as part of the three-lane entrance to the center.

Both sides claimed to have the right to control the land.

Last December, the Pulidos erected a fence at the outward edge of the sidewalk. Urbatec President John C. MacLaurin said he ordered workers to pull the fence down and continue paving.

Councilman Pulido, who was in court Monday, declined comment. He said his lawyer advised him not to say anything because of Urbatec’s allegations that his business interests and civic duties placed him in a conflict of interest.

Pulido lawyer Charles E. McClung said the family might paint a stripe down the pavement at the edge of what was the sidewalk to mark its claim. McClung asked Seymour to allow the Pulidos to do that much, but Seymour refused.

“When you tell me that your client will go out onto the pavement and do some funny striping, you’re giving me a good reason why I should issue (the injunction),” Seymour told McClung.

Pulido’s sister, Marisol, said the family had not planned on doing anything “irrational.”

The 100,000-square-foot, 18-store shopping center at 1st and French streets was first approved by the council in 1984.

Ace Muffler, a thriving small business, was part of the four-acre parcel declared “blighted” by the council and scheduled for demolition. But the Pulidos enlisted the support of the local chamber of commerce, congressmen and state legislators in their fight to stay put.

The saga ended in September, 1985, when the council rescinded its condemnation of the shop and Urbatec reluctantly agreed to build around Ace Muffler.

“It’s obvious that there’s more emotion in this than logic,” Urbatec’s MacLaurin said after the hearing. “The fact is, we’re doing the work outlined by the city’s Redevelopment Agency.”

MacLaurin said he was satisfied, after four years of fighting and “bad publicity.”

McClung said an appeal by the Pulido family is being considered.