Placentia : Residents’ Crime Fears Cause Project’s Delay

The City Council has postponed deciding whether to allow the construction of a four-bedroom home in a troubled area of the city after residents complained that it would add to crime, parking and drug problems already plaguing the neighborhood.

About 15 residents attended the council’s Tuesday night meeting and submitted slide photographs showing widespread disrepair in the neighborhood south of Chapman and Bradford avenues. The residents fear the new home, which the owner wants to build on Walnut Street, would be used as a boardinghouse, as other houses in the area have, and that this could lead to more crime in the area.

“They pack the men in like cattle, charging by the head,” said Viola Placencia, a 45-year resident of Placentia. Another resident complained that the neighborhood has become the scene of “door-to-door prostitution,” drugs and gambling and that many rooms are rented to illegal aliens.

The council ordered the city staff to investigate the complaints and report back before it is decided whether to approve construction of the two-story home.