Homeowners Fear Courthouse Will Ruin Neighborhood

At the southeast corner of Plummer Street and Winnetka Avenue in Chatsworth stands a 9.6-acre site that has become a favorite spot for weekend hobbyists. They use the open space to fly their model aircraft and to test out the newest rocket kits.

Just north of Plummer Street, neighbors revel in their suburban life. A drive through these quiet cul-de-sacs at night is sure to set off more than a few automatic security lights and raise the eyebrows of residents who peer out their windows to assure themselves that there’s no intruder afoot.

But these homeowners are worried that their nearly idyllic enclave is about to be ruined. They have filed suit to block construction of a proposed Los Angeles municipal courthouse on the empty lot near their homes. Several residents are even contemplating an exodus because of concern over the safety of their families and a decrease in the value of their real estate. Real estate agents say that offers have already diminished for these well-tended homes, and that prices may fall.

In March, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors narrowly approved the $51.5-million project along with promises that the three-story courthouse would look nothing like a commercial building. The 1,000-member Chatsworth Homeowners Committee remains unswayed by plans to mitigate troubling aspects of the courthouse. They’re bracing for an increase in traffic and crime by the time the courthouse opens--perhaps in late 1994.

“It’s definitely affecting property values negatively,” said Mahim Mirhoseini, an agent with the Jon Douglas Co. in Woodland Hills. “People want more privacy. They don’t like any commercial development,” she said, and that includes offices, schools, airports, churches and courthouses.

For two months, Mirhoseini has been trying to sell a three-bedroom home with a pool on Kessler Avenue, just a few blocks from the courthouse site. “If the courthouse wasn’t planned, I’d have a better chance of selling the house,” Mirhoseini said. Thanks to the jitters over the project, “I haven’t gotten even one offer.”

“It’s not yet possible to calculate the price difference, but demand is less,” said Barry Zarrabian, an agent with S. J. Heritage Realty in Northridge. “There’s lots of demand for this little section of Chatsworth,” Zarrabian said, but “people are concerned. They want to keep the area quiet.”

Zarrabian is trying to sell a three-bedroom home with a pool, listed for $239,000, on Penfield Avenue near the corner of Plummer Street and Winnetka Avenue. The lower-priced homes won’t be too affected by the courthouse, Zarrabian predicted, but “the owners of expensive homes are more concerned.” Some homes in the area sell for up to about $450,000. Owners of those pricey homes, he said “are legitimately concerned about more people, more crime and more police.”

Robert J. Quist, deputy court administrator of branch operations for the Los Angeles Municipal Court, thinks the concerns of neighbors are being blown out of proportion. “Ninety percent of people who go into a municipal courthouse are just like you and me,” he said. “The people who go into a courthouse are the same people who go into a shopping center.”

About 75% of the courthouses in Los Angeles County are within 300 feet of residences, Quist said. A study done as part of the environmental impact report for the courthouse also found no correlation between a home’s proximity to a courthouse and its value. Researchers looked at communities such as Torrance, Bellflower, Whittier and Beverly Hills to reach their conclusion that there was no negative impact on real estate values over a 20-year period for residences near a courthouse. “I don’t see why Chatsworth is different than any other area,” Quist said.

Most of the visitors to municipal courts are there to clear up traffic tickets, Quist said. “They’re not Jack the Ripper.” Besides, he said, courts don’t generate nearly the same number of car trips per square foot as commercial buildings do.

“I can’t imagine such a beautiful building will have near the negative impact of other commercial uses,” Quist said. “We don’t think courthouses are undesirable places. We don’t think a courthouse should be hidden away amidst railroad tracks and industrial loading docks.”

That’s one of the suggestions made, though, by Chatsworth residents. They suggested moving the court site to a more industrial area, farther from their homes. It’s worth noting, however, that the currently proposed site is part of an office park that includes businesses such as Southern California Gas Co., United Insurance Co. of America, Great Western Financial Corp. and the Los Angeles Times.

“We have tried to meet with the neighbors several times to mitigate their concerns,” Quist said. But, the meetings yielded little agreement. Many locals just don’t see any way to make a courthouse acceptable that is across the street from their homes--even if separated by an existing block wall on the north side of Plummer Street.

It isn’t possible to compare other communities with Chatsworth for a variety of reasons, countered Chuck Novak, an engineering consultant and community activist who has lived for six years in a comfortable Cape Cod home on Oakdale Avenue. Many of the communities surveyed as part of the environmental study have their courthouses as part of existing government centers, not as stand-alone structures, Novak said. Many of the other communities are also a mix of residences, condominiums and apartments. In Chatsworth, the proposed courthouse would only be near other businesses and single-family homes.

“We were never allowed to be part of the decision-making process,” Novak insisted.

Novak isn’t yet worried about panic selling in his neighborhood. But, he said, “people are selling because of it already.” Most of the sellers contacted for this article, however, seem to be selling for other reasons.

Despite the pending lawsuit against the project, Quist reported that there isn’t any injunction blocking construction. Groundbreaking is scheduled for November, he said, and “there’s no reason for us to stop construction.”