PERSPECTIVE : Gas Stations Are Coming Up Empty

Ask homeowners in northern Huntington Beach what bugs them about their neighborhood, and they quickly point to a boarded-up gas station that pumped its last gallon of fuel three years ago.

“It just sits there making the area look rundown,” said Mary Fletcher, who lives in a nearby Fountain Valley cul-de-sac. “We’ve had police activity there. Transients lived in the garage for a while. . . . It’s a blight on the neighborhood.”

The service station, at Warner Avenue and Newland Street, is an unlikely monument to a dramatic shift in the oil business away from small neighborhood outlets and toward “mega-stations” with rows of pumps and expansive food marts.

Since 1974, the number of service stations in Southern California has dropped from 8,900 to 4,100, according to Lundberg Survey Inc. The shakeout has littered Orange County with dozens of shuttered stations. Some have been closed for as long as a decade.

Finding suitable uses for the properties has proved difficult because most of the stations are on small corner lots.

Many sites also require costly removal of oil-polluted soil and other environmental improvements before new development can begin.

Faced with complaints from residents about the dilapidated properties, however, cities are taking steps to deal with the problem.

Garden Grove recently passed a measure encouraging owners of gas stations and other abandoned businesses either to maintain the sites or demolish them. In Cypress, property owners are required to paint the boards that cover gas station windows to match the exterior.

Builders, meanwhile, are finding some novel uses for the tiny lots. One of the more creative is in Orange, where Walgreen Co. is planning a drive-through drug store at an old gas station on Chapman Avenue.

“There’s a limit to what can be done with some of these sites,” said Jack McGee, Orange’s community development director. “But people always come up with new innovations.”

Through the 1950s and 1960s, filling stations with uniformed attendants and dime-a-gallon gasoline multiplied at a rapid rate and seemed assured of a permanent place in the American landscape.

Oil companies scrambled to keep up with the rapid construction of homes, freeways and businesses. The building pace was so furious that some cities, such as Buena Park, considered prohibiting more than two gas stations from locating at a given intersection.

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The boom went bust with the oil crisis of the early 1970s. Higher fuel prices prompted companies to close less profitable stations and direct customers to large operations at major crossroads.

In the 1980s, many closed stations were turned into mini-malls. But the recession of the early ‘90s, coupled with a glut of retail space, slowed the conversion, leaving a slew of abandoned properties sprouting weeds and attracting graffiti and garbage.

Residents say the closed stations project an image of declining neighborhoods that cannot support business. City officials are more reserved in their judgments but admit that the situation concerns them.

In Westminster, for instance, city leaders say they would like to see something developed at a shuttered garage on Westminster Boulevard at the community’s western gateway.

“It doesn’t look good for people to enter your city and the first thing they see is a boarded-up building,” said Brian Fiske, planning director.

Though cities lack the power to force development, they can make sure that the sites are well maintained and free of litter.

During election campaigns, the stations often become cluttered with campaign placards. To deal with that, several cities recently adopted laws requiring that candidates have permission from property owners before posting signs.

Code enforcement officers are also working with police to identify stations that might attract transients or teens who park their cars and drink. In many case, fences draped with tarps have been erected around vacant properties to make them less accessible.

Slowly but surely, long-closed sites are being developed, with the latest trend toward quick-change oil shops. In other cases, builders are combining stations with adjacent properties to create larger retail centers.

Fletcher and other residents in northern Huntington Beach said they hope a new use can be found for their station as well.

“We need something here that serves the community,” she said.

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Fading Facades

Orange County is dotted with vacant gas stations that have not pumped fuel in years. Since 1974, the number of gas stations in Southern California has dropped by half as oil companies close less profitable neighborhood branches. Here are some other commercial developments disappearing from the street-scape:

1) Furniture stores

Why? In the 1960s, furniture was sold out of modestly sized stores in central business districts. But “mega” furniture retailers like Ikea have emerged on the scene in recent years, locating their businesses in new shopping centers. The bigger stores usually offer greater variety and more parking.

2) Grocery markets

Why? Supermarkets, convenience marts and warehouse stores garner more grocery business. Old-fashioned markets have largely disappeared because they lack the product variety and expansive parking lots of larger stores.

3) Bank buildings

Why? The savings and loan scandals of the 1980s, coupled with recent bank mergers, have left dozens of vacant branch offices.

Source: Times interviews; Reported by SHELBY GRAD / For The Times

Los Angeles Times