Apartment Owners Reject Plan for Guard Station

Apartment owners in a Sepulveda neighborhood that was barricaded last month to curtail drive-by drug sales have rejected--at least for the time being--a police proposal to erect a guard station to admit only residents and their guests.

The proposal was shelved after some of the 40 owners balked at paying a private security firm about $30,000 annually to screen people entering the 12-square-block neighborhood, said Mila Casper, a spokeswoman for the landlords.

Instead, the owners have agreed to rely on police patrols and to take the less expensive step of installing $2,000 worth of planters to replace the sawhorse barricades set up last month at all but one of the entrances to the area, Casper said. The owners will reconsider the guard station if the planters fail to keep drug buyers out, she said.