Panel Backs West Hills Site for 911 Emergency Center

Over the objections of two council members, a Los Angeles City Council panel recommended that the city complete negotiations to buy a 20-acre site in West Hills for the construction of a long-awaited emergency communications center.

By a vote of 2 to 1, the council’s Public Safety Committee supported the recommendation of police officials who said the site at Fallbrook Avenue and Roscoe Boulevard is best suited for the facility.

A second communications center, which handles 911 calls, is expected to be built at the Westchester police training facility.

Police said the West Hills site, located on the former Hughes Corp. property, can accommodate the planned 50,000-square-foot center, parking for about 100 employees and future expansions that may be needed.

Council members Laura Chick, who heads the committee, and Mike Feuer supported the recommendation. The site is estimated to cost $4 million.

But Councilman Nate Holden opposed the recommendation at the behest of Councilman Marvin Braude, who is not a committee member. Instead, the two councilmen suggested that the facility be built at the Van Nuys Civic Center, which they said is a more central location.

Braude, who has long pressed city officials to revitalize the aging Civic Center, said building the new communications center in Van Nuys makes more sense than building it on the city’s outskirts in West Hills.

“What kind of message do we want to send,” he said. “Do we want to establish civic centers or urban sprawl?”

Braude, who represents the area around the Van Nuys Civic Center, also said that the emergency communications site should be built nearby so that city leaders can get there quickly during disasters or emergencies.

But police officials said the Van Nuys Civic Center is already too crowded and does not even have enough parking space for the police and traffic officers who work out of the center.

The city plans to use voter-approved bond funds to build a new parking facility to alleviate parking problems at the Civic Center. But police said there may not be space for the parking structure if the communications center is built in Van Nuys.

Cmdr. Charles Dinse of the LAPD’s Valley Bureau said parking at Van Nuys is so tight that officers have to park on the street. Several have complained about having their cars burglarized, he said.

“So this parking structure is very important to the security and morale of our people,” he said.

In addition, a City Hall source said that Police Chief Willie L. Williams has written to Braude, warning him that efforts to build the center in Van Nuys may delay construction for at least a year in order to complete complicated environmental reports.

The entire council is expected to consider the two sites sometime in the next two weeks.