BUENA PARK : Residents in Limbo Over Forced Moved

For the past several months, Minerva Serna said, she has felt as if the world were collapsing around her.

“Right before Thanksgiving this letter came,” Serna said, fidgeting in her seat. The registered letter informed her that her home of 19 years would be purchased by the city as part of a redevelopment project.

She, her husband, Joe, and about 15 neighbors who received the same letter are worried about the future.

Residents on 4th Street and Western Avenue are in the middle of a redevelopment plan city officials call a “power retail center.” Although an architect has not been chosen, initial plans call for a huge retail center on Manchester Boulevard near the Santa Ana Freeway.

After getting over the initial shock of a forced move, the residents learned that the appraisals of their properties would not be ready until as late as August.

“How can we go out looking for a home when we don’t know how much we are going to get?” Joe Serna asked his neighbors.

Jeff Johnson worries about how he is going to find a home comparable to the one he bought 16 years ago for $25,000.

But Gus Duran, project manager for the city, said the homeowners will receive full market value. They also will get help finding other homes and be reimbursed for relocation costs, he said.

Duran said he sympathizes with the residents’ uneasiness over the lack of a timetable.

The city is in the process of negotiating a contract, which will take as long as four months, he said. “We try to give them some information. It is hard when we don’t have any solid facts or timing,” Duran said.

For Herchel Talma and his wife Laurie, the uncertainty involves not only their futures but also that of his 82-year-old grandmother’s. “They said they would try to find property with two houses on it,” Herchel Talma said.

Talma has been living in a house behind his grandmother’s since 1979. He said he is afraid they won’t be able to find suitable housing.

Rob Plett, co-owner of Park Auto Glass, one of the businesses slated for condemnation, said he fears for the health of his father Arthur, who is the other owner.

“He is in total turmoil wondering what is going to happen,” Plett said. Arthur Plett has been in the hospital, and Rob Plett has been trying to run the business.

“Business has really slowed down since I’ve been out looking for another business,” he said.

But not everyone feels put out by the city’s action.

Evelyn Gifford, who has lived on the block since the 1940s, said the letter gave her a sense of relief. She said she plans to take her 86-year-old mother, who also lives on 4th Street, to Idaho to be closer to her children.

“I wanted to retire. Now I have a reason.”