LA HABRA : Path to Community Center Being Cleared

Twelve buildings down, four to go.

When all are demolished in the next two months, construction for a new community center will begin in La Habra’s Civic Center West.

Though no one has opposed the community center project, preservationists had fought City Hall for two years over the fate of one of the buildings that today is no more.

That building, at the corner of West La Habra Boulevard and Euclid Street, once housed the law offices of Richard M. Nixon. A number of residents wanted to spare the building, built in 1917 or 1918, which they regarded as a historic landmark.

City officials maintained that the buildings, which also included the Wester Hotel, were unsafe and would have been too costly to restore.

The community center, a 20,000- to 25,000-square-foot facility, will replace the demolished buildings, with construction set to begin within a year after an environmental impact study is done.

City Manager Lee Risner estimated the project cost at $2.4 million.

There has been “absolutely no opposition,” Risner said. “I think everyone wants a community center because we need one badly.” Currently, community service programs are being provided in a City Hall building.

As long as the community has a say as to how the center will be used, it should be erected, said former Councilman Kent A. Roberts, who was a leader of a preservation group.

“There’s no question there’s a need for it, and I think the concept is valid,” he said. “You can’t replace the old buildings. They’re gone. But the people should help define how the center will be used and how it will function.”

The city is now accepting bids from architectural firms to design the center.