Planners Give 2 Streets a Reprieve : Redevelopment: Lennox’s Burl and Dalerose avenues are out of the plan to revitalize Inglewood Ave.

Yielding to pressure from residents, county planners have dropped plans to include two residential streets in a controversial redevelopment proposal for a deteriorated stretch of Inglewood Avenue in Lennox.

The proposal would have razed 882 housing units to develop a two-block-wide commercial corridor along Inglewood Avenue. But opponents said the proposal would have destroyed two of the area’s nicer streets--Burl and Dalerose avenues.

John Huttinger, assistant administrator for community planning, said the county ruled out including those two streets because of neighborhood opposition.

“We were sort of the lightning rod on this. . . . We mentioned the idea and got blasted pretty severely for it,” Huttinger said.

However, redevelopment of Inglewood Avenue remains a possibility, he said. A redevelopment designation would give the county the power to acquire properties and relocate residents.

Hector Carrio, a Dalerose resident who had gathered signatures of 70 neighbors opposed to redevelopment, said the county’s decision “is a definitive success for those of us who sought to preserve the residential character of Lennox.”

Many residents and business owners have complained about drug dealing and related crime along Inglewood Avenue. County planning officials say the best way to clean up the avenue is to designate it and the streets on either side a redevelopment area.

The existing commercial zoning for Inglewood Avenue has provided no incentive for developers because of the shallow lots there, according to county planning officials. Including the adjacent streets in the redevelopment area would have made commercial development more feasible, planners say, because it would allow for larger and more diverse projects.

Carrio has said the county would exact “a high and unfair price” from residents of Burl and Dalerose avenues to clean up Inglewood Avenue through redevelopment.

But Michael Niell, 43, a lifelong Lennox resident who runs an income tax service on Inglewood Avenue, said redevelopment of that avenue alone would be only a partial solution to the problems associated with it.

“You’re still not going to get business people to come in here,” Niell said. “I don’t know what business would be interested that wouldn’t have been interested previously.”

Residents aired their concerns about redevelopment at two community meetings on the proposal, held earlier this month. Results of a questionnaire indicated that the community was divided on what strategy the county should take in its bid to revitalize the avenue, Huttinger said.

Of the 142 residents who responded, 72 favored redevelopment and 70 were opposed, he said. Those opposed to redevelopment held different opinions about three other options that the county was considering for the corridor.

Exactly what alternative county planners might choose is still unclear, Huttinger said. Among other options, the county is considering an expansion of commercial zoning along Inglewood to include Dalerose and Burl avenues. This would allow individual homeowners to decide whether they want to sell their properties to developers.