Decision Due Soon on Police Station Site

Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon said Thursday that a decision regarding a possible new police station on the site of the former General Motors assembly plant will be made within a month.

“We are negotiating on the General Motors site and we are still exploring and having discussions about the Alemany site,” Alarcon said, referring to the former Rinaldi Street location of Alemany High School. The Mission Hills school received extensive damage in the 1994 Northridge earthquake and was forced to relocate its campus to a former seminary next to the San Fernando Mission.

“We are continuing to explore our options and we expect to have a major announcement within a month,” Alarcon said.

Both the Los Angeles police and fire departments have expressed interest in building new stations on a five-acre parcel donated to the city by General Motors, Alarcon said.

Earlier this week, after receiving clearance from the Public Works Department, which conducted an environmental study of the site, the City Council voted to accept the property from General Motors.

The new police and fire facilities would be next to a $100-million shopping center and commercial development being built on 68 acres of the former factory. Known as The Plant, the center will be anchored by a 16-screen Mann’s Theatre complex and a 105,000-square-foot Home Depot store. Other tenants will include Radio Shack, Ross Dress for Less, In-N-Out Burgers and Chief Auto Parts.

Citing figures that show the Valley as the city area most underrepresented by the LAPD, Alarcon has long pushed for a sixth Valley police station. But despite support for the plan from some of the department’s top officials, Alarcon has yet to secure the estimated $25 million to $30 million needed to build a fully staffed station.