Torrance Muffler Shop Making Noise Over Ouster Bid

No matter how hard Torrance tries, Jake Egan won’t be moved.

He and his AableMuffler Shop are holding their ground at the gateway to Torrance’s glitzy new redevelopment area--the last grease-stained vestige of the city’s old industrial eastside.

For years, city officials have wanted to remove the aging blue and white muffler shop and its outdoor hydraulic repair racks from one of Torrance’s busiest corners.

First, the city tried to oust Egan by declaring the corner to be part of a “blighted” area that needed redevelopment.

Tried a Different Tack

When Egan beat back that effort, Torrance tried a new tack--a street-straightening project that would slice through the muffler shop.

The battle between one man and the bureaucracy is still under way. So far, Egan and Aable Muffler haven’t given an inch.

Torrance, intent on transforming the former industrial area into a park-like setting of buff-tone and glass offices, has used its redevelopment powers to clear out scores of small businessmen, but not Walter J. (Jake) Egan.

The former Carson councilman who served nine months in federal prison for mail fraud and extortion in connection with the W. Patrick Moriarty political corruption case is a stubborn fighter who won’t give up.

“Anybody that knows me knows one thing,” said Egan, a small man with a thick gray and black beard, piercing eyes and a staccato-speaking style. “I am not a quitter. I may have spent my time in jail. I may have been in prison. They may have locked me down, but most of my friends know I’m coming back, that I am going to keep on fighting.”

At this point, Egan, who is 47, says he has two priorities in life: saving his business and getting his felony conviction overturned.

Fending off Torrance tops the list.

The battle has been a long and hard one.

In 1983, the city tried to remove him by attempting to include his 3,500-square-foot property in a massive redevelopment project that will soon become the North American headquarters for Honda.

When Egan filed a lawsuit and threatened to bring the entire project to a standstill through legal action, the city backed down.

Fearing that any delays might drive off Honda, the Torrance City Council, acting as the city’s Redevelopment Agency, agreed to exempt his triangular parcel at Torrance Boulevard and Van Ness Avenue from the redevelopment project.

City Paid Legal Fees

The city, intent on removing any roadblocks to the Honda project, paid Egan’s legal fees to settle the case.

While Egan kept changing mufflers on the racks a few feet from the curb, the city systematically cleared the land and businesses in the 25 acres around him. Today, Aable Muffler is enclosed on two sides by a chain-link fence and “Private Property--No Trespassing” signs.

The thought of the oil-stained muffler shop standing side by side with Honda’s handsome headquarters is too much for many Torrance officials to contemplate.

“I think it’s horrible,” said Councilman George Nakano.

The word eyesore often is heard when officials speak of Aable Muffler.

City Manager LeRoy Jackson said: “I don’t think it’s aesthetically pleasing.”

Now, three years after the agreement not to condemn his property for the redevelopment project, the city wants to straighten Torrance Boulevard right through Egan’s business.

“They plan to take 18 feet from the property line, which puts Torrance Boulevard through the rack and apron,” an angry Egan said.

Egan gives Honda’s executives two choices: “Either you look at Aable Muffler or you don’t have to look at Aable Muffler.”

Egan said Honda will have to build a hill or knoll immediately behind him to block the view of the muffler shop from Honda’s offices. And that’s not all. He has threatened to paint a “Buy American” sign on the roof facing what will become Honda’s corporate offices.

Despite the outward obstinacy, Egan would move under the right circumstances and for the right price.

“If Honda wants my property, I’ve said it for the last four years, have Honda come over here and have Honda buy it. Don’t hide underneath the skirt of the mayor of Torrance,” Egan said. “Torrance is misusing the intent of the redevelopment law,” he said. “They are doing it for the benefit of a large, foreign corporation.”

Torrance City Atty. Stanley Remelmeyer said the city is negotiating with Egan and has not started condemnation proceedings against the muffler shop. “We have no right under the redevelopment agreement to take his property for redevelopment purposes,” Remelmeyer said.

However, it could condemn the shop to improve Torrance Boulevard. The city is moving forward with plans to improve the intersection where Aable Muffler stands. “It needs to be modified, cleaned up and adjusted,” City Manager Jackson said.

Needs 18-Foot Strip

Jackson confirmed that the city needs at least an 18-foot strip of Egan’s property to straighten a curve on Torrance Boulevard.

“We’re in negotiations. We have not made a last and final offer,” Jackson said. “We’re going to try to reach agreement with Jake. We appreciate Jake’s position. We wouldn’t offer him anything that we didn’t think he had a reasonable chance of accepting.”

Egan said the city last offered him $135,000 for the property he bought 18 years ago for $25,000.

But comparable street-corner locations are very hard to come by and are extremely expensive. Egan said the city suggested one in Inglewood that would cost $800,000, and another in Mar Vista for $600,000.

With such choices, Egan fears his $100-a-month mortgage payments would soar and sink his business.

“I don’t need a drastic jump in overhead from $100 to $5,000 a month. That is a heck of a lot of mufflers,” Egan said. “You can’t take that large a jump in your overhead.”

Egan also worries that his customers may not follow him if he is relocated far from his present site. “If your customers don’t follow, you’re not going to make a living.”

Puffing on a Marlboro in his garage office, Egan said he is not giving up his ground anytime soon.

Egan said his immediate goal is “coming to work every day. Making my money. Making my life successful and fighting condemnation here in Torrance.”