ANAHEIM : Redevelopment OKd Along Brookhurst

The City Council has approved a west-side redevelopment district, which officials, business leaders and residents hope will lead to a revitalization of Brookhurst Street and portions of Lincoln and La Palma avenues.

The Brookhurst Commercial Corridor Redevelopment Project roughly encompasses Brookhurst from Falmouth Avenue on the north to Chalet Avenue on the south.

It includes Lincoln between Bruce Street and Muller Way and La Palma between the city’s western boundary and Maple Street.

The district has numerous older shopping centers, storefronts and industrial parks and has become the target of complaints about crime, panhandling and run-down buildings. There are no homes in the district.

“This is a very important first step for turning around West Anaheim,” Mayor Tom Daly said.

The council unanimously approved the project Tuesday.

“The Brookhurst Street area needs a major cleanup, a major overhaul,” Daly said. “We are going to bring some old-fashioned progress to an area that badly needs it.”

Richard Bruckner, the city’s redevelopment manager, said city officials plan to meet in coming months with property owners in the area before making specific plans for the district.

He said that because of uncertainties in the local economy, it is impossible to estimate how much money the city and private investors will eventually spend in the area over the next 35 years, the life of the district.

“We don’t have a firm strategy yet, but in the next few months we hope to work that out,” Bruckner said.

Richard Kato, a partner in a Brookhurst Street real estate firm, said that so many businesses have been abandoned and boarded up in the area that “I wish I owned a rent-a-fence business.”

“Redevelopment is not a cure-all. But if there are higher and better uses of the (area’s) property, it will help,” Kato said.

Ronald Mullen, president of the Linhurst Assn., a group representing neighboring residents, said the area needs redevelopment.

“In the Brookhurst corridor, there has been an increase in graffiti and gang activity and crime, including prostitution,” Mullen said. “It is a blighted area.”

The area becomes Anaheim’s fourth redevelopment district, following Anaheim Plaza, the area surrounding the intersection of Weir Canyon Road and the Riverside Freeway, and the district that stretches from downtown to the industrial area in the city’s northeast corridor.

Under consideration by the city is a fifth redevelopment district that would encompass areas of Anaheim Boulevard not in the downtown district.

It should be voted on by the council next week.