VAN NUYS : Residents Demand Security at Plaza

Tired of being harassed by panhandlers and fearful of muggings, neighbors of a Van Nuys shopping center are considering a petition and picket lines to force the shopping center’s reluctant tenants to hire security guards for the plaza.

Leaders of the Van-Sherm and the Chisholm Estates neighborhood watches say many of their members are afraid to do business at the shopping center located at Sepulveda Boulevard and Sherman Way. The 13 tenants there include Lucky supermarket, The Wherehouse, Thrifty and Bank of America.

“No one in our neighborhood goes there any more,” said Barbara Link, a leader with the Van-Sherm neighborhood watch, which includes about 300 homes. “It’s not just the vagrants. There have been muggings there.”

Van Nuys senior lead officer Chuck Leber said the center has been an area of criminal activity, but that most of the complaints they receive are about panhandling.

Link said she is discussing the petition and picket line with Cheryl Brewer, a leader of the 260-home Chisholm Estates Group.

Some employees agree there is a security problem at the center. Sandy Sweet, night manager at Lucky’s, said she has “known about several attacks in the parking lot over the past several months.”

“This one person had just finished putting the groceries in their car when somebody came up and drove off with the car,” she said.

Duiring the past four months, the center’s landlord and tenants have tried to hire a security firm--Golden West K-9--but squabbling between both parties over the shared cost and liability insurance has held up the plan.

“We’ve encountered every conceivable obstacle imaginable,” said Gary L. Jeffrey, security consultant with Golden West K-9 who has supervised the negotiations. Jeffrey said Bank of America and The Wherehouse have been delaying the process the longest. “They won’t even talk to us.”

Matt Benedict, district manager for The Wherehouse, would not comment. Richard Beebe, a spokesman for Bank of America, said the Sepulveda branch has its own security guard and that any plans to help pay for security for the plaza is “still under review.”

The latest compromise--which would have Lucky paying the brunt of the cost for a security guard patrolling the lot--has yet to be accepted by the tenants. Brewer hopes they can come to a solution before the picket lines form.

“We want to say, ‘If you can handle this situation, you’ve got us back,’ ” Brewer said.