EARTHQUAKE: THE LONG ROAD BACK : Fillmore Still Hopes to Revive Downtown

It took less than a minute for Fillmore’s future to crumble to the ground.

Last week’s earthquake crippled the city’s commercial core, an historic business district at the root of an ambitious redevelopment effort aimed at reviving the once-withering farm town.

Now merchants and city officials are talking about rebuilding. They say that now more than ever, the city needs to push forward with plans to resurrect the downtown district and fashion it into a tourist attraction.

“That resolve is still alive,” said City Councilman Roger Campbell, whose home was destroyed by the quake. “We’ll survive. We’ll do it. We’ll be back.”

But there is also much worry in the city of 12,000. There is the fear that merchants--too scared or too tired or too broke to rebuild--could simply abandon the downtown, sinking plans to bring the area back to life.

“We just finished restoring the downtown businesses and now the whole thing is a disaster area,” said Ruben Segovia, co-owner of a downtown market so heavily damaged that re-entry has been prohibited. “If government and the community do not get behind the rebuilding effort, this is going to become a ghost town.”

Fillmore had staked its future on re-creating its past, pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars during the past three years into refurbishing the turn-of-the-century buildings that make up the central business district.

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City officials had mapped out a redevelopment strategy aimed at rejuvenating the local economy by tapping into tourism as a revenue source.

“We felt that our town was going downhill and we needed to do something to bring it back,” said Dorothy Haase, executive director of the Fillmore Historical Museum and a member of a task force established to guide downtown redevelopment. “We had great plans for our town.”

Banking on Fillmore’s roots as a railroad center, city officials purchased from Southern Pacific Transportation Co. a 13-acre right of way near the downtown district.

The city hoped to transform the property into a railroad-themed development that would attract tourists from throughout Southern California. The attraction was to include a dinner train, operated by Short Line Enterprises, that would chug through the fruit orchards of the Santa Clara Valley.

The project’s centerpiece would have been the refurbished central business district and a newly constructed Main Street promenade of quaint boutiques, restaurants and cultural attractions.

The redevelopment project was expected to generate 250 jobs and an estimated $268,000 a year in tax revenue for the city. It was scheduled for completion by the end of the century.

But on the eve of adoption of the redevelopment plan, last Monday’s violent earthquake jolted the city and sent brick and masonry crashing onto downtown sidewalks.

The earthquake caused more than $200 million in damage to Fillmore, most of that in the downtown business district.

Grocer Richard Gonzalez, owner of Richard’s Meat Market on Main Street, said he was driving to work when the earthquake hit and stirred up a giant dust cloud.

“I said to myself, ‘There goes the redevelopment,’ ” said Gonzalez, chairman of the task force that designed the blueprint for it. “It’s still a good project, but it’s going to have to be put on the back burner. We can’t go after a tourist economy right now when we don’t even have an economy for ourselves.”

By week’s end, 40 downtown buildings were still considered unsafe and unable to open for business.

“We had a very optimistic view of what we would be able to accomplish this year,” City Manager Roy Payne said. “We’ve been working very diligently on bringing the downtown back to life. Now we’re back to square one.”

The redevelopment effort could suffer if earthquake damage causes property values inside the project area to decrease. That decrease could mean that the city will receive less “tax increment revenue”--the increased tax paid on property within a redevelopment area as its value increases--than anticipated to use to pay for downtown improvements.

“It is possible that assessed value in the Fillmore redevelopment project will decline,” said David A. Wilcox, senior vice president with Los Angeles-based Economics Research Associates, which performed an analysis of the city’s redevelopment program.

“I think Fillmore has taken a body blow,” he said, “but it is very resilient.”

For many downtown merchants, the biggest question is how many buildings will be torn down and how many business owners will be willing to endure what promises to be a lengthy reconstruction.

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Janet Foy, owner of Fillmore Flower Shop on Central Avenue, said she believes the business district will bounce back, but only if it receives federal assistance.

“It really will make or break what we’re trying to accomplish down here,” said Foy, whose shop suffered moderate damage. “Even though I might be able to move back in, what’s downtown going to look like if a lot of owners can’t afford to rebuild?”

Fillmore Mayor Linda Brewster is optimistic that federal help will arrive soon, but she wonders how much aid is available in the wake of riots, floods and fires throughout the nation.

Nevertheless, she said she believes that one way or another the community will continue to support the effort to revitalize downtown Fillmore.

“Fillmore will never be the same,” Brewster said. “But it doesn’t mean that we can’t be great. We will just be different.”

If federal aid comes through in a big way, some see opportunities not only to restore the downtown district but to make it better and more earthquake-proof.

“This is one of the most forward-thinking small towns I’ve ever seen,” said Jim Clark, co-owner of Short Line Enterprises, which owns railroad engines and cars that play an important role in the city’s downtown redevelopment effort.

“This is a small town with a lot of grit trying to accomplish something nice, only to be dealt a hard blow,” Clark added. “Of all the communities, this one deserves some help.”

Still, some merchants wonder how long they will be asked to hold on before federal assistance is available.

Ruben Segovia has spent every day since the quake nervously waiting behind yellow police tape as building inspectors and structural engineers evaluate the safety of his 100-year-old building.

As of Friday, Segovia had not been able to determine the extent of the damage to his building.

“We’ve got to go forward, I don’t see where we have any choice,” he said. “I just hope we’re not busted by the time help arrives.”