Razing of Houses for I-15 to Be Speeded

State officials plan to accelerate demolition of abandoned houses in a city neighborhood after community residents complained that the houses have become havens for drug dealers and targets for arsonists and vandals.

California Department of Transportation officials announced Wednesday that they plan to demolish 18 to 22 houses the state owns near 40th Street before July 1.

Caltrans has been purchasing properties in the area to build a 2.2-mile stretch of Interstate 15 that would run parallel to 40th Street between Interstate 805 and Interstate 8. But some area residents say the houses have become eyesores.

“They give the whole community a sense of blight,” said Frank Gormlie, a community organizer for the City Heights Community Development Corp. “You think sometimes you’re in Beirut or the Bronx or something like that.”

The abandoned houses have become popular hangouts for drug dealers and transients, Gormlie said.

Transients are believed to have caused two fires in two of the houses last month, said Steve Saville, a Caltrans spokesman.

Saville said the demolition is being accelerated with the cooperation of several city and county departments. Under normal circumstances, Caltrans would have needed city permits and clearance from the San Diego County Air Pollution Control District before workers could raze the houses, Saville said.

Also, San Diego Gas & Electric Company had to turn off gas and reroute electrical lines away from the houses, Saville said. San Diego City Councilman John Hartley assisted with getting waivers for the permits and persuading SDG&E; to cut off services quickly, Saville said.

“The paper work for an individual parcel of land can take weeks or it can take months,” he said. “This allows us to cut through months of red tape.”

John Wainio, a spokesman for Hartley, said the councilman was pleased to see the project moving forward.

“It’s a big win for us,” Wainio said, adding that the neighborhood “has been a mess for two years.”

But, even if Caltrans meets its goal of tearing down the houses by the end of June, several abandoned houses will remain in the area. To complete the construction project, Caltrans needs to acquire 94 parcels of property in the neighborhood, Saville said. Some, but not all, of those contain buildings that have been abandoned.

Workers have demolished about 170 houses since the project began four years ago, Saville said. Gormlie said he hasn’t been satisfied with the rate at which Caltrans has been clearing the area.

“We welcome this action--finally,” Gormlie said. “Our question is, when are they going to get rid of the rest of them?”

Actual construction work on the project, which has been delayed several times because of lack of funding and neighborhood opposition, is not scheduled to begin until the fall of 1993, Saville said.