VAN NUYS : Problems Endure at Beleaguered Motel

Three months after a nonprofit agency leased the Chateau Motel and promised to turn the former trouble spot into a job-training center and home for the disabled, the establishment is still vacant, still an eyesore and still a problem, some community members say.

Located at 6719 Sepulveda Blvd., the motel--where rooms once rented for $13 an hour--has been the site of prostitution, drug use, at least one murder and several stabbings over the years.

At the request of community groups in October, 1993, Los Angeles City Councilman Marvin Braude asked the city’s zoning administration to investigate the motel, along with 10 others between Sherman Way and Magnolia Boulevard on Sepulveda Boulevard.

In March, the city declared the Chateau Motel a public nuisance, citing a sharp increase in crimes and arrests attributed to the motel since 1991, and other negative effects on the community.

The motel’s owners, listed in city records as Jin Chang Yang and Guey Dan Hwu, did not appeal the city’s ruling or a list of 27 conditions imposed on the motel that would have allowed it to continue to operate. On March 17, the motel’s operating permit was revoked.

After the city’s action, Asian Pacific Community Services, a Westminster-based nonprofit group, signed a two-year lease with the owners of the 46-unit motel, promising to convert the building into a job-training center for the mentally disabled.

In October, with support from the Van Nuys Homeowners Assn., local Neighborhood Watch groups and the Town Keepers Action Group, the organization began cleaning out the rooms and selling the few remaining pieces of shabby furniture not stolen by vagrants and others who invaded the property after it was closed.

But three months later, community members say no visible sign of improvement is apparent.

Alan Woo, Asian Pacific’s executive director, said delays resulted because initial cost estimates of work required at the motel were far lower than actual costs.