L.A. Will Bill for Repairs on Quake-Damaged Buildings

Owners of earthquake-damaged buildings that have become a public nuisance will have to pay the city to board them up or tear them down, the Los Angeles City Council decided Wednesday.

Since the Jan. 17, 1994 Northridge quake, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has reimbursed the city more than $6.5 million to board up, tear down or install fences around severely damaged buildings.

But because FEMA funding ran out last July 17, the council, at the behest of Councilman Hal Bernson, voted to continue the work and to charge property owners for the cost.

According to a city estimate, about 300 severely damaged buildings remain to be boarded up or demolished, most of which are near the Northridge epicenter.

“They are a danger to the public,” said Francine Oschin, a spokesperson for Bernson, who represents the hard-hit northwest Valley. “It’s a public safety issue.”

The council instructed the city attorney’s office to draft a law to impose liens on the buildings that the city must demolish, fence or board up. Because it was proposed as an urgency ordinance, the law is expected to be adopted and take effect within 30 days.

Since the quake, the city has hired about 360 contractors to demolish 304 buildings and board up or fence 933 others, including swimming pools that became an attractive nuisance for young children when surrounding block walls crumbled during the quake, said Janet Ervin, a supervisor in the city’s quake recovery program.

Another 183 buildings that the city designated as public nuisances were eventually demolished or repaired by the property owners, Ervin said.

The city spent another $3.4 million in federal grants to board up, fence and clean up dozens of other buildings in several so-called “ghost towns”--clusters of vacant quake-damaged buildings that were taken over by squatters, drug dealers and rats after the quake.

But city officials say when the FEMA-funded program ended, there were still about 300 vacant quake-damaged buildings that needed to be repaired or demolished.

While most of those buildings are in or near Northridge, a few are west of downtown Los Angeles near the Santa Monica Freeway, said Phil Kaainoa, assistant bureau chief for community safety.

The demolition process begins when the city’s Building and Safety Department declares a property a public nuisance, based on a list of criteria, including the potential danger the property poses to neighbors.

The Building and Safety Department then sends the owner a notice to make repairs or demolish the building within 30 days after receiving the notice.

If no work is done on the property, the city then initiates a process to demolish the buildings, a process that takes about 50 days. The process to fence, board up or clean a nuisance property only takes about 20 days.

Once the city finishes the demolition or fencing, it places a lien on the property for the cost of the work.

Kaainoa said the cost of demolishing a single-family house ranges from $2,000 to $5,000, while the cost of razing an apartment building can average $20,000 or more, depending on the age and size of the structure.