ANAHEIM : Run-Down Malls Must Spruce Up

Gone are the days when landlords of the city’s mini-malls and strip shopping centers could sit back and let their investments weather with age and use.

Anaheim’s Planning and Code Enforcement departments have joined forces to rid the city of such eyesores. The city will soon begin tracking offenders who have let their buildings deteriorate and assisting those who need financial help to improve their structures.

The new plan, two years in the making, will be implemented within a couple of months in an effort to improve the look of older parts of the city, where decades-old malls have been left untended.

“We hope in a couple of months to start going through the west end of the city because that’s where a lot of businesses have deteriorated,” said John Poole, city code enforcement manager.

For example, code enforcement officials will be looking for strip malls with illegal signs, poor landscaping or improper outdoor storage and warning owners to repair the centers or face fines.

Also, the code enforcement department will be considering various economic incentives to encourage landlords to improve the properties.

Poole cited a number of factors, such as the age of the malls, absentee owners and lax code enforcement, that have combined to allow many of the city’s strip malls to deteriorate.

Code enforcement officers will be looking first at strip malls in the west side of town on Brookhurst Street, Euclid Avenue and Magnolia Avenue, near where those streets intersect with Lincoln Avenue.

City staff will also be considering how to update the look of some older malls. Decorations such as redwood chips and crushed rock may be limited, and artificial plants and turf would be banned.

Other new rules could include requiring delivery trucks and service trucks to use rear entrances when possible, and prohibiting them from parking in front of stores.

Planning and zoning officials will be making recommendations to the City Council.