San Fernando OKs Plan to Redevelop Neighborhood

The San Fernando City Council has unanimously approved a plan to redevelop the city’s oldest Latino neighborhood and has agreed to abide by citizens’ recommendations that could lead to the condemnation of five of the worst properties in the residential area.

The vote Monday night brought to an end a stormy eight months in the tight-knit barrio during which residents had to face some grim statistics about their homes and neighborhood.

“It has been very hard for the community to look at itself,” Councilman Jess Margarito said at the council meeting. “Yes, sparks did fly . . . but this process begins to empower the community.”

About 80 people crowded into the City Council chamber for a public hearing before the council vote. No other issue in recent years has attracted such attention and controversy in this 2.4-square-mile city.

The redevelopment proposal sent shudders through the barrio when it was introduced in October because many said they could lose their family homes--many of which have been passed down from generation to generation--as the way was cleared for development.

Homes Safe

In approving the plan, city officials were quick to point out that residents of the 188 houses in the area will not lose their homes through eminent domain, which allows the city to condemn property and force property owners to sell at market value.

The new, irregularly shaped 55-acre redevelopment zone is roughly bordered by Kalisher Street on the north, San Fernando Mission Boulevard on the south, Truman Street on the east and Woodworth Street on the west. It will become part of an older redevelopment zone centered along the San Fernando Mall strip.

Outside of the residential neighborhood, the plan calls for renovating a four-block commercial area bounded by Workman Street, Truman Street, San Fernando Mission Boulevard and Pico Street.

The initial focus of the plan is to attract a developer to a vacant, unsightly supermarket parcel on San Fernando Mission Boulevard and to create a housing rehabilitation program for residents in the zone, City Administrator Donald E. Penman said.

Construction Stimulation

Under redevelopment, cities can buy property and resell it at a discount to developers to stimulate construction in otherwise blighted areas.

Benefits come from increased property-tax dollars from the higher assessed value of improved sites. Taxes above those paid when the zone was created go to the city, which uses the additional money to finance more improvements.

The council agreed to adopt the recommendations of a 20-member citizens’ committee that designated only five parcels in the residential area for acquisition through eminent domain.

The parcels include a dilapidated building, which authorities say is the headquarters of the Sundowners motorcycle gang, at Kalisher and Mott streets; a vacant pool hall at Kalisher and Kewen streets that was shut down by the city last year because of persistent crime problems; a row of four rental houses at 1231 Kewen St., and abandoned parcels at 415 and 451 San Fernando Mission Blvd.

San Fernando Police Chief Dominick Rivetti testified at the public hearing before the vote that the properties have “historically attracted criminal activity,” including drug trafficking. He said the four homes on Kewen have been notorious sites of drug dealing.

Carmen Reynosa, a co-owner of the four Kewen Street houses, blamed the problems at her property on a vacant city-owned lot next door where drug sales have taken place. She said the houses she owns are dilapidated because tenants have resisted repairs. Reynosa, 66, accused the city of being “out to take our property away.”

But City Councilman James B. Hansen was enraged at her defense and shouted at Reynosa: “You should hang your head in shame. You make a bad name for this town. . . . We want to get rid of you.”

Evelio Franco, a longtime barrio resident who served as chairman of the residents’ committee, said it recommended the properties it did for possible condemnation because there was no other way to rid the area of the crime problems associated with them.

The council will vote later on whether to condemn each of the properties.

“We felt that those areas have to be cleaned up,” Franco said. “Children see these places on their way to school, families pass by them on their way to church. This is not the impression we want our children to have of their neighborhood.”

Although a city housing report showed that more than half of the homes in the zone need major rehabilitation or are beyond repair, the committee rejected the idea of the city condemning property across the barrio through eminent domain. Instead, the committee requested that the city start housing-rehabilitation programs for barrio residents.

“People were scared that the city would come in with bulldozers and start knocking down homes,” Franco said.

Council members reassured the residents that home-improvement programs will be created through redevelopment, that a retail center will be built and that sorely needed improvements in streets, parks and water service will come about.