Officials Plan to Pressure Caltrans to Repair Houses

Denouncing the state’s management of its property along the Long Beach Freeway extension, politicians and preservationists vowed Wednesday to hold hearings, conduct audits and go to court to force Caltrans to repair its inventory of deteriorating houses.

In the city of South Pasadena, which has long opposed the freeway, officials said they would seek legal action to force Caltrans to comply with a 1973 court order requiring the state to maintain and rent out its properties along the freeway corridor running about six miles from Alhambra through Pasadena.

The Times reported Wednesday that nearly one-quarter of the 610 homes the agency owns are either uninhabitable or vacant. Scores of others, worth an estimated $27 million, became excess when the route was changed years ago.

Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar), who chairs the Transportation Committee, called Caltrans a slumlord and pledged to hold up approval of the agency’s budget if officials do not make home repairs and comply with state law requiring them to sell off excess residential property.

“It’s a disgrace,” said Assemblyman Bill Hoge (R-Pasadena) who opposes the freeway. “Just drive by and look at the houses and you’ll see it’s a disaster area.”

One staunch freeway supporter, Assemblywoman Diane Martinez (D-Monterey Park), agreed that the condition of the Caltrans houses is appalling. “I can not understand why anybody would assume this is acceptable,” Martinez said.

At Caltrans headquarters in Sacramento, a spokesman said the agency plans to undertake an “internal review” of its property holdings, but he would not elaborate. Caltrans officials in Los Angeles said they had no reaction to reports Wednesday of property mismanagement. They said last week that the agency’s homes are in “pretty good condition.”

Officials have contended that it is premature to sell 110 surplus houses because the currently proposed freeway route has not won federal approval. They said the old path, which has been abandoned, may be resurrected someday.

Among the vacant, vandalized eyesores under Caltrans’ stewardship are 15 historic houses that must be maintained to meet strict preservation standards. Yet these homes are empty caverns with blistered facades, major water damage, buckled floors and pest infestations, The Times found.

Learning of their condition, the president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation in Washington, Richard Moe, accused Caltrans of forcing communities “to die a slow death through neglect of the houses that they own.”

Scores of Caltrans homes have degenerated, fallen vacant and become vandalized, blighting what were once well-kept neighborhoods and depriving government coffers of rental income and property tax revenue.

In Los Angeles, city officials said they would perform an audit to determine whether the state’s poor upkeep and high vacancy rates have resulted in lost rental income due the city from Caltrans homes located in El Sereno. Cities along the route get a small share of the rent in lieu of property taxes.

In one block of Sheffield Avenue in El Sereno, for example, the Times found 10 Caltrans houses that were boarded up or vacant. One was a crash pad for gang members.

Several local officials suggested Wednesday that a nonprofit agency be created to manage the freeway homes Caltrans has neglected.

“The lesson here is to put someone else in charge or else there will be a brief period of activity to repair the homes and then Caltrans will go back to their old ways,” Pasadena Councilman Rick Cole said.

Newly elected Pasadena Councilwoman Ann Marie Villicana, whose district includes many of the homes, said the city would pressure Caltrans to upgrade its properties. “I’m going to do everything possible,” she said.

Antonio Rossmann, legal counsel for South Pasadena, said that the city would soon return to federal court to seek enforcement of a 1973 injunction that requires Caltrans to avoid letting its properties become “public health and safety hazards.”

“They haven’t done anything to maintain these houses,” said John Phillips, an attorney who helped win the court order. “They are simply not in compliance.”

Hoge said he would reintroduce a bill requiring highway officials to sell off property within 60 days that fails to meet local health and safety standards. He said the bill died last year after Caltrans lobbied to defeat it.