LAPD Caught in Land Squabble : Property: L.A. seeks to build new police stations and is offering market price for the sites. But some owners want more, saying the value is depressed because the city has neglected the area.

A handful of landowners in South-Central Los Angeles believe that the city is trying to them on the value of their property as it seeks to build new 77th Street and Newton Division police stations.

The problem is that the city is offering to pay them the market value of their property--which they say has been kept artificially low because of the city’s general neglect of their community.

Now, nine homeowners on East 34th Street near the Newton station fear that they will not be able to afford comparable homes elsewhere. City Councilwoman Rita Walters, who heads a panel that reviews eminent domain proceedings, agrees.

“My position is you don’t authorize condemnation until all else fails,” said Walters, who is also angry about the city’s “take-it-or-leave-it attitude” in dealing with the residents, all constituents in her 9th District.

“The issue centers on homeowners, some of whom are aged or do not speak English too well, being treated in a very disrespectful manner,” Walters said. “They are absolutely terrified.”

But other city officials say Walters, who chairs the council’s Public Works Committee, is causing costly delays in the multimillion-dollar projects by insisting that city officials work more closely with the landowners to negotiate a better price for their homes.

Los Angeles Police Department officials and Councilman Marvin Braude, who chairs a city panel that reviews police improvement projects, say the delays are allowing inflation to eat away at the $50 million available to rebuild the dilapidated, 76-year-old stations.

“Walters,” Braude said, “has been holding up this matter in committee since March. However, the overriding public interest is that we move forward.

“As chairman of the city’s Public Safety Committee, I want to see that these police stations are built,” Braude added. “The police officers are working under deplorable conditions and cannot be as productive and efficient as they could be.”

Steve Hatfield, the LAPD’s acting commanding officer of police facilities construction, said the impasse is regrettable.

“The Police Department has an opportunity to build fantastic, state-of-the-art facilities right in the heart of the area that needs development most,” Hatfield said. “We are saying that it is a shame we cannot, wherever possible, expedite these projects.”

Even the homeowners agree that the new structures are critically needed to replace the overcrowded and run-down police stations. Construction is scheduled to start in early 1994.

Essentially, the city needs five land parcels near the 77th Street station to accommodate a larger facility that also will house the South Bureau offices. Four parcels have been acquired, but the final one is the former site of a gas station where soil has been contaminated by leaking gas tanks, according to a report by the city administrative officer. The city has offered to buy that parcel for the appraised value of $300,000 and not charge cleanup costs, the report said. Because the owner has refused to sell for this price, city officials want to acquire the property through eminent domain.

The proposed site for the new Newton station consists of 10 privately owned commercial and residential parcels. Only one landowner has agreed to the city’s terms.

“The amount offered by the city was simply not enough to relocate them properly,” Walters said, “not even in the 9th District.”

But Braude argued that if a property owner disagrees with the city’s appraisal, “the burden is on the owner to obtain another appraisal.”

“Then the city has the opportunity to negotiate which appraisal is the more accurate assessment of the real value,” Braude said. “But the city, under law, is unable to pay more than the appraised value.”

Between the squabbling officials are the homeowners who say they would gladly sell to make way for the new stations, but only for a price that enables them to afford a residence in a decent neighborhood.

“This is not about delays caused by Rita Walters,” said Paul Lee, a Los Angeles Legal Aid Foundation attorney. “It’s about delays caused by the city’s Department of Real Estate, which wants to get this land at rock-bottom prices, without regard for the human price.”

One of Lee’s clients is Jennifer Paris, 45, who is unemployed and shares a three-bedroom, wood-frame home near the Newton Division station with two daughters and their four children. The 90-year-old house has been in her family for four generations.

“The city offered me $130,000 for my house--I can’t buy anything decent for that,” Paris said. “We’re barely getting by, and they want to throw us out in the street.

“How can these council people decide what happens in our district when they don’t live here?” Paris asked. “Shoot, they don’t even come around here.”

Nathaniel Keith, 79, who lives a few doors down, said he was offered $128,500 for the modest home he bought in 1962.

“I’m worried about not getting a house equal to the one I’ve got,” Keith said. “I’m not able to work and Social Security is not enough to help buy a new place.”

Francisco Pedroza and his wife, Juana, complained that at the very least the material mailed to them by city officials should have been in Spanish.

“We can’t read English,” Juana Pedroza said. “If the letters they send are in English, how am I supposed to understand what they are trying to do?”

Walters’ Public Works Committee plans to meet today to try to reach an agreement that will provide the homeowners with compensation and allow the city to move ahead with the projects.