Residents Get Choice in New Plan for Lennox

Failing to gain support among Lennox residents to create a redevelopment district, Los Angeles County planners have devised a new revitalization plan that would allow homeowners in three proposed commercial corridors to decide whether to sell to developers or remain in their homes.

Sorin Alexanian, a county regional planner, said the decision to eliminate eminent domain proceedings from the plan--which would have forced residents to relocate--stemmed from many residents’ outspoken opposition.

The latest proposal, one of several since an ambitious $121-million renewal effort was unveiled in 1989, would still create three commercial zones, but without forced evictions change would be more gradual, Alexanian said. It also would give homeowners flexibility in deciding whether to sell their properties. The three areas targetted for renewal would remain the same.

County officials see commercial development as the best means of revitalizing blighted areas of Lennox. “We’re hoping this plan is more or less a consensus of the community,” Alexanian said.

A community meeting on the proposal will be held at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Lennox Middle School.

The plan’s key goals include the preservation of residential neighborhoods, the revitalization of commercial areas and the promotion of light industrial uses near freeways. The plan must ultimately win approval from both the county’s Regional Planning Commission and the County Board of Supervisors.

Under the previous plans, two two-block-wide commercial corridors--along Inglewood Avenue and in an area next to the San Diego Freeway--would have been designated redevelopment project areas. The San Diego Freeway portion in Lennox would also have industrial uses. A third commercial corridor is proposed along Hawthorne Boulevard to the east.

A drive along a deteriorated stretch of Inglewood Avenue in Lennox illustrates the dilemma county planners have faced in developing a plan for the 1.25-square-mile unincorporated community.

Inglewood Avenue, zoned for commercial purposes since the 1940s, is more than 80% residential. Longtime homeowners live next door to vacant lots and dilapidated storefronts. Drug dealing and other crimes are commonplace.

Aside from economic and social factors, Inglewood Avenue also has insufficient lot depth, making it unattractive to developers, Alexanian said. To revitalize the strip, county planners are recommending that the streets on either side of the avenue also be zoned for commercial purposes. This would make commercial development more feasible, Alexanian said, because it would allow for larger and more diverse projects.

Residents in the proposed Inglewood Avenue corridor began a drive in October to pressure planning officials to drop redevelopment, saying the plan would have destroyed two of the area’s more well-kept streets, Burl and Dalerose avenues. More than 800 housing units would have been razed to create the corridor. County planners relented later that month, eliminating redevelopment as an option for the Inglewood corridor.

However, until the latest proposal was released early this month, county planners had yet to agree on a method for revitalizing Inglewood Avenue.

Hector Carrio, who lives on Dalerose Avenue and last fall spearheaded a petition drive against redevelopment, said he has mixed emotions about the current plan.

On the one hand, he would be able to sell his property “at my price, if I choose,” Carrio said. “But I would like to see Dalerose and Burl remain residential.”

The county’s decision to eliminate redevelopment options was a victory for residents, he said.

Bruce McDaniel, assistant superintendent in the Lennox School District, which opposed previous proposals to relocate two schools, said the new plan would not affect the district.

“They’ve removed that portion of the plan that would have most impacted the district,” McDaniel said. However, McDaniel said revitalization would probably occur piecemeal under the new plan rather than in a cohesive manner.