Lancaster Takes Step Toward Easing Blight

The Lancaster City Council has agreed to pay $241,000 for two gutted and abandoned apartment buildings in one of the city’s most blighted areas, the first step in a promised campaign to restore the neighborhood.

City Council members, sitting as the city’s redevelopment agency, voted 5 to 0 Monday night to purchase the two four-unit buildings on Cedar Avenue between Avenues H-8 and H-12 from Ramon and Rosemarie Scott of Simi Valley. The city plans to either renovate the buildings or demolish them and rebuild.

The purchases are part of the city’s so-called Operation High Desert Storm, announced last month, which is aimed at rehabilitating a neighborhood rife with crime, drugs and violence. Council members have allocated an initial $1.25 million to the effort.

When council members visited the area last month, the two-story buildings had no windows, smashed walls and missing fixtures and were largely vacant. Sheriff’s deputies said drug dealers and prostitutes had been using the units.

City officials said removing the two buildings will improve the neighborhood. They said they are exploring other purchases in the area, including two similar four-unit buildings.

The Scotts, who could not be reached for comment, have owned the two buildings for several years, according to property records. City officials said the couple simply were unable to control what went on in the buildings or keep them in compliance with city codes.

City officials said they obtained an appraisal to support their $241,000 purchase price for the two buildings. County assessor’s records value the two buildings together at about $292,000, although that figure probably represents their value prior to their substantial deterioration.