Council OKs Pitch for Indoor Batting Cages After Residents Knock It

Despite objections from residents who said they are concerned that rowdy children will overrun their neighborhood, the City Council voted this week to allow a company to proceed with a plan to open indoor batting cages in the south-central part of town.

The council’s action upheld a Planning Commission decision that had been appealed by La Habra Gables Homeowners Assn., which represents 107 townhomes.

Residents told the council Thursday night that they do not oppose the business but that they prefer not to have it in their neighborhood because it might increase traffic congestion and noise levels and attract “undesirables.”

They said most Gables homeowners are senior citizens and are already upset because youths occasionally jump their back fences as short cuts to main city streets.

“This facility would increase foot traffic and wall-jumping,” Gables resident Wanda Erdman said.

Another Gables resident, Edith Troy, said batting cages and the children who would use them “don’t belong literally on your doorstep. . . . They belong in industrial parks and only in industrial parks.”

Other residents disagreed, though, arguing that the facility, proposed by Ten Investments Corp. at Euclid Street and Montwood Avenue, would improve the area by giving children a place for after-school recreation.

“Our children need something like this,” resident Rochelle Price said. “It has the potential to be a very positive thing.”

Council members took the same position.

“The only alternative is to move the kids out of the city,” Councilman James Flora said.