Group Wins Reprieve on Quake Repairs

A North Hills community organization, facing intense pressure from city inspectors to repair three of its earthquake-damaged apartment buildings or have them declared public nuisances, won another reprieve Tuesday.

The Los Angeles Building and Safety Commission rejected city inspectors’ request that two of the buildings be declared nuisances because they had become havens for drug users, gang members and prostitutes.

The panel postponed action on a third building because the developer--Neighborhood Empowerment and Economic Development--still had not repaired a border wall that leans dangerously over adjoining property.

Commission members said they delayed sanctions because the developer had fulfilled promises it made two weeks ago to fence and board the buildings and post 24-hour guards to secure them against vandals and criminals.

All three are located on Orion Avenue between Nordhoff and Parthenia streets, just east of the San Diego Freeway. The buildings are in one of the areas most severely damaged by the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

The organization, which is run by political allies of Councilman Richard Alarcon, and an official of the Los Angeles Housing Department assured board members that financial arrangements, including low-interest government loans, were practically complete and that construction would start on the buildings in about a month.