Developer Given 2 Weeks to Board Buildings Marked for Quake Repairs

A politically connected developer who has failed to complete repair work in one of the San Fernando Valley areas most severely damaged by the 1994 Northridge earthquake got another break Tuesday.

The Los Angeles Building and Safety Commission postponed acting on city inspectors’ request that it declare as public nuisances three quake-damaged buildings owned by Neighborhood Empowerment and Economic Development (NEED).

The commission will review the case in two weeks, and give strong consideration to whether NEED has secured the buildings against intruders and repaired a wall that is leaning into the parking area of an adjoining apartment building.

The commission took the action after a deputy to City Councilman Richard Alarcon, whose political allies run NEED, assured commissioners that NEED has the councilman’s support.

The deputy, Alvin Kusunoto, said the Los Angeles Housing Department is working closely with NEED and that repair work will soon start.

City inspectors, however, were not impressed. Citing similar promises from the Housing Department that have gone unfulfilled, inspectors had urged the commission not to grant a delay.

NEED, a nonprofit neighborhood development organization, bought the buildings using loans and grants from the Housing Department. The department has awarded NEED more than $7 million to buy and repair the three buildings, plus two others in the Orion-Parthenia area. NEED also used the money to buy a sixth building on Blythe Street just outside the neighborhood.

The buildings in the Orion-Parthenia community are among those in 17 severely damaged neighborhoods designated by city officials as “ghost towns” because they have been condemned as uninhabitable since the quake. It is the only “ghost town” where repairs are not complete or near completion. Work has been completed on only one of the six buildings. Work began on a second one in early November. And the Housing Department is processing a second loan on the Blythe Street project.

After a Times investigation into the recovery problems last month, the Housing Department said it would never again let a developer as inexperienced as NEED take on so many projects at once. It also agreed to extend an interim loan of not more than $500,000 that would allow NEED to begin work on one of the three buildings, pending completion of permanent financial arrangements with other sources.

NEED administrators have said work is expected to begin on all the buildings in about a month.

Declaring the three buildings on Orion Avenue a public nuisance at Tuesday’s commission meeting would have given city building inspectors final authority to take whatever action they desired--including demolition--to force NEED to eliminate the blighted conditions.

“It would be a collective vote of no confidence,” NEED Director Ruben Romero complained. Romero said he has hired security guards to watch the properties.

Commissioners, after hearing inspectors and police describe drug dealing, prostitution and gang activity in the vacant buildings, sternly warned NEED officials that they have two weeks to board and fence the buildings in accordance with the building department’s specifications.

“If you come back and the buildings are not secure, my inclination would be to declare them a public nuisance and let the [building and safety] department proceed with abatement,” Commissioner Lee K. Johnson said.

Commission Chairman Joyce Foster warned that the buildings pose a grave danger to children.

“When you have buildings like this unsecured, it leaves your children vulnerable to danger,” she told several parents who spoke in support of giving NEED more time.

After hearing those warnings, Senior Building Inspector Bill Grimes called the two-week delay a good compromise.