Judge Orders Repairs to Damaged Sears Site

After months of asking, pleading and threatening, the city of Simi Valley finally won a court injunction Tuesday that is designed to force the owners of the ruined Sears Outlet building to raze the hulk within four months.

Superior Court Judge Ken Riley signed an injunction ordering the owners to either clean up or rebuild the burned-out earthquake casualty that has blighted the Tapo Street business area since the 1994 Northridge quake.

“During the next 120 days, the defendants have one of two things they have to do,” said City Atty. John Torrance. “They have to either demolish the entire structure, walls and slab, or demolish the walls only and actively pursue approvals for new development on the site.”

If the owners of the Sears Outlet building fail to level the structure by the deadline, as they agreed to, the injunction empowers the city itself to demolish it and charge the owners through their annual property tax bill.

But the judge’s order also allows the owners, who are not part of the national retail chain, a window of more than a year and a half in which they can seek planning department approval and rebuild the structure.

Lawrence David Morse, chief spokesman for the owners, could not be reached Tuesday afternoon for comment. His attorney, Bruce Landau, declined to comment on Morse’s plans for the site.