Neighbors Seek to Close Motel

In grainy postcards from the 1930s, the Chief Motel was touted as “the Pride of Long Beach,” where tourists vacationed in southern Los Angeles County to frolic on the wide, never-ending beaches.

Today, this stucco building, with its turquoise-topped turrets and quaint pre-World War II look, is the temporary home for what community leaders describe as a revolving door of robbers, rapists, drug addicts, derelicts, wife beaters and other dregs of modern society.

The motel, where rooms rent for $22 a night, and its transient tenants are an incongruous mix for this tony neighborhood known as Bixby Knolls. Rep. Steve Horn lives in the area. The Virginia Country Club, surrounded by sprawling mansions, is less than 10 blocks away.

But neighbors living in more modest homes behind the motel have spent years listening to screams, obscene comments and unruly behavior coming from the 25-unit motel that sits in a languishing business area on Long Beach Boulevard.

But no more. In August, after a Special Weapons and Tactics team assault on the premises, residents formed the Bixby Knolls Neighborhood Action Committee. As a result, the city Planning Commission on Thursday will consider closing the business by revoking its conditional use permit to operate in an area no longer zoned for motels.

It could be a victory for neighbors.

It could also be a small victory for the city’s neighborhood nuisance abatement office, formed in the summer to coordinate efforts to get rid of properties whose owners have scoffed at building and health inspectors and police officers.

Chief’s manager John He defends the motel, noting that he has done his best to screen customers. But he said it is an inexpensive motel whose clientele have some kind of financial problem. He said he doesn’t like to turn people who are down on their luck onto the streets.

Neighbors say their plight of annoying activity has gone on for years.

Nancy Conover, who lives behind the motel, says people scramble over her backyard wall to splash in her swimming pool. She has found wet underwear, empty bags of fast food, and moist footprints as evidence of unwanted guests. She keeps her doors locked at all times.

“What is really offensive is the language,” said Conover, an interior decorator. “There are so many fights back there. The screaming and yelling is awful. We have called the police so many times, that they just say, ‘Yes, we’ll be right over.’ ”

Next door, Cassandra Vandenberg and her husband say it is unsafe for their 2 1/2-year-old son to play in the backyard by himself because of the rocks and bricks she said the motel residents hurl over the fence.

“We have seen car explosions back there,” Vandenberg said. “There have been several drug overdoses.”

Last year two people died of drug overdoses at the motel, police said.

From July 1, 1995, to July 31, 1997, reports show that police visited the motel 122 times. During a 1995 visit, the Planning and Building Department noted 213 violations. The Health Department found 120 violations.

In late 1995, a suspected robber who crawled through a motel window was shot to death by his would-be victim, who had a shotgun in his room.

But what really united neighbors to campaign for closing the place was an Aug. 1 incident when two men robbed a fast-food restaurant in Garden Grove, kidnapped a 15-year-old girl and drove to the Chief Motel. A short time later, one of the men left to pick up a prostitute.

When the prostitute wanted to go to a liquor store down the street, one of the men became angry and punched her in the face.

The next morning, when the suspects saw a TV report about the robbery and kidnapping, they panicked and dropped the abducted girl off in Orange County. Minutes later, an officer drove by and the girl directed authorities to the Chief Motel.

The motel was surrounded by police and news helicopters, SWAT officers and at least 20 police cars. Neighbors were appalled.

“The night this happened, I looked over at my wife and said, ‘No more,’ ” said Bud Sinclair, a retired investor who has lived two blocks away for 20 years.

Sinclair marched over to the building and informed the motel’s manager that he intended to close it down. Then Sinclair formed the Bixby Knolls committee.

Since the group cracked down the motel has finished 90% of the repairs recommended by the city, a report said. But a city inspection Dec. 1 showed that many security and management changes have yet to be done.

The previous owner, Yung-Chen Lin, sold the business this month to John Wu, who owns rental properties in Santa Monica and Fullerton. He said he would hire a new manager and raise room rates.

But the change in ownership hasn’t affected neighbors’ opinion of the place.

“We’re just hoping we can close it down,” Vandenberg said.