Homes Would Be Razed : Del Aire Residents Oppose Plan for Sheriff’s Station

According to angry residents of unincorporated Del Aire, the first problem was the way the message from the Los Angeles County Sheriff was delivered.

The second problem was the message: an apparent decision to acquire and raze homes in a two-block area for a new sheriff’s station to replace the current Lennox station.

More than 250 people turned out for a stormy meeting with Sheriff’s Department and county representatives at an elementary school last Tuesday to attack the proposal. They included residents of the 24 homes that would be replaced by the station and their neighbors, who charged that a new station would drive down property values and increase crime, noise and congestion.

Lt. Michael Stine, construction coordinator for the project, acknowledged in an interview Friday that officials were surprised by the size and vehemence of the crowd.

The plan will not move forward until “we do a little more homework and community relations,” Stine said. “We’re in a holding pattern right now. We thought we might get a tussle from the people who would have to move. We didn’t really count on that amount of opposition from the rest of the residents.”

Stine plans to meet with a group of Del Aire leaders this week.

Del Aire, a quiet community of single-family homes between El Segundo and Hawthorne, mobilized last week after sheriff’s deputies handed out flyers in a two-block area bordered by 116th Street and 117th Street between Aviation Boulevard and Isis Avenue. The flyers said the area, which lies at the southern edge of construction for the Century Freeway and its light rail line, had been selected for a sheriff’s station.

The flyers stated building of the substation “will necessitate acquisition of the properties located within these boundaries. We have set two dates for meetings to provide you with information about the acquisition process and relocation entitlements for which you may be eligible.”

“The first we’d heard of it was when they delivered that letter,” said homeowner Ray Kitchens, whose home on 117th Street would face the station.

As officials conceded at last week’s meeting, the wording of the letter was needlessly alarming because it implied that a final decision had been made. In fact, the proposal would require an environmental impact study and approval by the County Board of Supervisors.

“That letter should have never been written that way,” said Gordon Hahn, brother and field deputy for County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, whose district includes Del Aire. “I don’t blame the residents for their reaction.”

The proposed 83,000-square-foot Del Aire station would cost about $24 million, Stine said. Buying the property would cost between $7 million and $9 million, according to Leonard Stockwell of the County Facilities Management Division.

There is an urgent need for a new station to serve the patrol area covering Del Aire, Gardena Park, Lawndale, Lennox and Vermont areas, officials said. The Lennox station in the 4300 block of Lennox Boulevard, built in 1946 to accommodate 80 people, is overflowing with 200 personnel. The Lennox station is also directly under the LAX flight path, preventing department helicopters from landing and taking off there.

Gordon Hahn, whose office has been inundated with calls about the station, assured residents in a short speech at the meeting Tuesday night that the supervisor would hear their concerns.

Athens Area Suggested

In an interview Friday, Gordon Hahn said he had recommended that the Sheriff’s Department take a closer look at property around 120th Street and Normandie Avenue in the Athens area.

“That would be a much better spot,” Hahn said. Fewer people “live in the area. It would be cheaper and we wouldn’t have to displace people.”

Hahn said Sheriff’s Department officials told him they would evaluate the area as a possible site and report to him Monday.

At last week’s meeting, Lennox Station Capt. Walter Lanier and officials of the County’s Facilities Management Division who help relocate displaced homeowners, emphasized to the audience that the decision-making process would involve them.

The officials were repeatedly jeered by residents, especially when the presentation turned to relocation benefits.

One man shouted, “We’re not going to need the information because we’re going to beat this thing!”

Welcome Buffer

County officials also argued that the station would provide a welcome buffer and increased police protection against a major influx of people caused by the Century Freeway, a light rail depot and its parking lot.

But residents said they feared that a sheriff’s station and lockup would bring undesirables to the area, and that the people using the light rail depot would be commuters and pose no problem.

“They were blowing smoke at us,” said homeowner Ahron Ahronian afterward. “The people using (the light rail terminal) will be working types, not transients.”

The proposed station would also provide an area for helicopters to land and take off, and residents complained that they would be bothered by helicopter noise at all hours.

“We do not, I repeat, not plan to put a heliport at the station,” Lanier said. “There will be an area in the parking lot” where helicopters can land when necessary.

Mary Silvertooth, who has been renting a home on 117th Street that she planned to buy, said her appraiser informed her after news of the proposal that the value of the property had dropped from $180,000 to $110,000, leaving her plans in limbo.

“I can’t believe this has happened,” she said.

County officials are preparing information on the impact on property values of sheriff’s stations in other areas to allay residents’ fears, Stine said.

“The unfortunate part is that everyone wants law enforcement, and you’ve got to put it somewhere,” Stine said in an interview.

The Del Aire site was chosen after several sites were discarded for different reasons, said county and sheriff’s officials. They said those sites included part of the new $200-million Pacific Concourse office park that will be built east of Del Aire, a proposal that was rejected by the developers; areas along La Cienega Boulevard, which were rejected because they would be too close to vehicle exhaust fumes from the Century and San Diego Freeways, and several sites in the Vermont area.

Ruth McGinty, whose home on 116th Street is slated for acquisition if the plan goes through, was one of the many Del Aire residents who said they plan to fight the proposal in court if necessary.

“I’ve lived here 17 years and it’s been one continuous battle,” she said. “We had people displaced by the Century Freeway, we fought a plan to put in (low-income) housing. . . . It finally seemed like there was light at the end of the tunnel. This dropped on us like a big bomb.”