Hawthorne, Inglewood Looking : Lennox Seen as Likely Target for Annexation

Some residents of unincorporated Lennox are looking uneasily to the south and north as Hawthorne and Inglewood contemplate annexing parts of their community.

Last November, Hawthorne annexed two small areas of Lennox and a slice of Los Angeles city territory, effectively extending Hawthorne’s border north to the Century Freeway, which is under construction. That move met with little protest in Lennox, a working-class area of about 16,000 residents, 80% of them Latinos.

But Hawthorne officials are studying further annexations with “commercial opportunities” in mind, City Manager R. Kenneth Jue said.

Inglewood also is studying the costs and benefits of annexing parts of Lennox that are in Inglewood’s “sphere of influence,” which extends south to Lennox Boulevard.

Commercial Appeal

Determined by a county body known as the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO), spheres of influence are county areas that a city may attempt to annex. Hawthorne’s sphere of influence extends north to Lennox Boulevard.

An expected surge in commercial activity from the Century Freeway, as well as Lennox’s location just east of Los Angeles International Airport, make Lennox potentially inviting redevelopment territory. Officials for both cities also said that annexation would help them control gang, drug and blight problems that spill across their borders from Lennox, particularly from a section of Inglewood Avenue plagued by drug dealing.

At an April 29 meeting of the Lennox Coordinating Council--a neighborhood group--Hawthorne and Inglewood representatives assured residents that no firm decisions on annexation have been made. They explained when a city proposes an annexation to LAFCO, written protests from more than 50% of the registered voters or property owners in the area kill the initiative. Protests from more than 25% force the issue to go to an election.

In 1966, Lennox voters defeated by a 2-1 margin a proposed Inglewood annexation of the entire area.

Pat Martel, an assistant to Inglewood City Manager Paul Eckles, said she attended the meeting last month to alleviate what she said were understandable fears on the part of Lennox residents.

Displacement Feared

“We have neither the power nor the right to annex without consulting the residents,” she said, adding that Inglewood and Hawthorne’s annexation studies are not related.

Nonetheless, Lennox leaders said they fear new efforts at annexation could result in commercial and industrial redevelopment that would displace residents. Most Lennox residents are neither property owners nor voters. Many are recent immigrants from Mexico and Central America, including undocumented workers renting from absentee landlords in areas that suffer from substandard housing and jet noise. They would have little say in what is done there.

“These are poor people living in fear,” said school board member Hector Carrio, who is also a member of the Lennox Coordinating Council. “They are struggling to survive. If people are replaced with commercial buildings, what will happen to the school district?”

The Lennox Coordinating Council is made up mostly of longtime Anglo residents of the area who form the bulk of Lennox property owners and voters. According to President Harry Lanczyk, the council opposes annexation by either city. He said members fear higher taxes and displacement resulting from redevelopment similar to that occurring in Inglewood areas blighted by jet noise.

“Our plan is to organize enough people to go door-to-door and make a concerted effort to inform people on this matter and find out where they stand,” Lanczyk said. “We want to know what’s going on. We don’t want to keep getting annexed chunk by chunk.”

Lennox is represented by County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn. It is Hahn’s policy not to get involved in annexation questions, said Hahn spokesman Dan Wolf. But Wolf added: “His position is he’ll support what the people want. As it happens, residents in his district have voted against annexation.”

Hawthorne planners have determined that supplying basic city services to the southern half of Lennox would cost $1,894,837 annually, according to a memo to City Manager Jue from redevelopment staff member Beth Garrow. The amount of new sales, utility and other tax revenue that the city would gain has not been determined, Garrow said.

Gradual Annexation

Because of the cost, Jue said, it is likely that annexation of Hawthorne’s sphere of influence will proceed in increments.

“Chances are that we’ll probably take in some areas a little bit at a time,” he said. “We’ll discuss our plans with residents beforehand. We want to show them it can be beneficial.”

Jue said Hawthorne has received calls and letters from Lennox residents favoring annexation. He was aware of the coordinating council’s opposition, but he said, “I don’t know if it speaks for that many people any more.”

Lanczyk responded: “The council speaks for the people of Lennox by virtue of the fact that no one else will speak for them.”

Inglewood plans to budget funds to study annexation and poll Lennox residents this year, Deputy City Manager Norman Cravens said. City officials have determined that annexation would cost about $2.5 million in extra services and reap the same amount in revenues annually. But Cravens and Martel said one strong advantage would be the ability to control crime and blight that spills into Inglewood from Lennox.

“Our position is that we get the problems anyway without having the tools to solve them,” Cravens said.

While Cravens said news media have mistakenly reported crimes that occurred in Lennox as Inglewood incidents, Lanczyk said just the opposite has happened. And he objected to assertions that Hawthorne and Inglewood police could fight crime in Lennox better than the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, which provides law enforcement there.

School District

The impact on the Lennox school district is another central part of the complex annexation issue. Hawthorne and Inglewood officials say annexation would not affect the schools; Lennox leaders like Carrio say that would not be true if annexation results in redevelopment and eventual displacement of the student population.

“I can’t see that annexation would do anything to affect the school district,” said Hawthorne Councilman Charles Bookhammer. “Redevelopment could be an advantage for the schools; they could benefit from taxes.”

Lennox School Supt. Kenneth L. Moffett said the bulk of tax money comes from the state on a per-pupil basis, regardless of the tax base. He said the impact of annexation would be hard to predict.

Other than the sheriff’s station, the Lennox school district is the main government institution in the community. It plays a central part in the assimilation of Lennox’s new immigrant population--a group that would be most threatened if annexation brings attempts to replace low-income housing with business and industry, community leaders say.

Enrollment in the 5,018-student district is increasing, Moffett said. An expected loss of students displaced by Century Freeway construction has not occurred.

“The question these cities will have to address is what will be the cost to them if they are going to maintain Lennox as a community for its citizens,” Moffett said. “There are a lot of needs. We’re watching the situation very carefully.”