Officials Renew Fight--Via Mail--Against New Post Office

When leaders of this tiny working-class city talk about beautifying the streets and improving the quality of life for residents, at least a dozen possible building projects come to mind.

Putting in a new post office, they say, is not one of them.

At the urging of a redevelopment consulting firm, city officials have renewed their efforts to stop the U. S. Postal Service from converting an abandoned Albertson’s supermarket into a post office and mail distribution center.

The new post office, city officials complain, represents a setback to their large-scale redevelopment plans. Located at a main intersection between Lakewood and Hawaiian Gardens, the facility would be an eyesore, they say, and would rob the city of about $500,000 in potential annual tax revenue.

Officials Adamant

Despite the city’s objections, postal officials are adamant about using the site for a post office, which is expected to open in September. Work recently began on converting the run-down building at Norwalk Boulevard and Centralia Street, postal officials said last week.

But the building, vacated in July when Albertson’s moved to Town Center, has been targeted by the Redevelopment Agency as a prime site for commercial development. Although they readily admit that they do not have enough political clout to pressure postal officials into abandoning the plan, city leaders say they are determined to take a firm stand.

“We’re prepared to do whatever we have to do, whatever is necessary, to stop them,” Mayor Pro Tem Rosalie Sher said. Last fall, Sher wrote to state and federal officials, asking them to reconsider their plans for the vacant store. “That’s an important location for us,” she said.

Last week, after a City Council resolution, the letter-writing campaign was resumed by Mayor Kathleen Navejas, who sent a one-page memo to several political leaders, including U. S. Sens. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.) and Alan Cranston (D-Calif.) Navejas also serves as chairman of the Redevelopment Agency.

‘Little Response’

“The displeasure of the City Council and Redevelopment Agency regarding this matter has been expressed in many letters to the postal service department and U. S. legislators. However, to this date there has been little or no response to our concerns,” Navejas wrote.

In the letter, Navejas suggested that the city either lease or buy the building as a way to preserve future tax revenue.

In December, the Postal Service signed a 10-year lease with Albertson’s, said Debra Townsend, manager of support services in the Postal Service’s Long Beach branch. The lease agreement was reached after postal officials conducted an unsuccessful four-year search for a construction site in the city.

“It was our last choice,” Townsend said. “We needed the space.”

The 27,000-square-foot building, on a 2.7-acre site, is 15 times larger than the “horrendously crowded” postal facility on Carson Street, Townsend said.

Townsend said she is aware of the letter sent by Navejas and a complaint that negotiations between the Postal Service and Albertson’s was “done without any interaction with the City Council.”

‘Intend to Operate’

“We are always interested in what the city has to say, but we intend to operate in those quarters,” Townsend said. “It’s a project that both we and the city can appreciate.”

Albertson’s officials declined to comment on the lease.

Work to repair the building’s badly leaking roof and remodel the interior did not begin until this month because of department cutbacks, Townsend said. About $2 million was budgeted to prepare the facility, but that figure was reduced to $200,000 early this year. As a result, much of the work has been postponed until next fiscal year.

Navejas said the money allocated for repairs and remodeling is enough to cover only minor alterations to the building--a further indication that the Postal Service is not interested in efforts to revitalize Hawaiian Gardens.

“What can they do with $200,000?” she asked.

Square-Mile City

City officials are also angry that postal officials chose the 1-square-mile city for a distribution center instead of finding a site in one of the larger surrounding communities.

“It’s a very small city,” Redevelopment Director Darwin G. Pichetto said. “We are trying to do something about the visual as well as the well-being of the city.”

Indeed, the city recently paid $30,000 to Cotton/Beland Associates to draw up an ambitious “streetscape plan,” aimed at beautifying the city’s thoroughfares and coordinating the design with redevelopment projects.

The latest push to block the post office began after consultant Dale Beland warned council members that if the post office “goes in there, it will be a major loss of opportunity.”

Store Preferred

Beland suggested that a large retail outlet, such as a department store or a home improvement center, would be better suited for the site, where Beland has proposed a large, colorful sign welcoming motorists traveling south on Norwalk Boulevard into the city.

“It’s not like we have miles and miles of land to develop,” Navejas said. But she is quick to add that she does not think the city will be successful in its efforts to stop the post office.

Townsend said the city’s fears that the post office will have an “institutional look” are unfounded.

Plans for improving the exterior of the building as being drawn, Townsend said. By July, she said, additional funding for improvements and landscaping could be available.

“I think they will be pleasantly surprised when they see what we do when we remodel it,” she said.