The Road Back From Ruin

For years, the neighbors have referred to the sagging derelict of a house as the Nightmare on Berkshire Avenue.

But now the once-elegant, 1920s Spanish Revival-style home--one of hundreds that have fallen into disrepair while debate rages over whether to extend the Long Beach Freeway through South Pasadena--may be restored to its former beauty. A plan under consideration at South Pasadena City Hall calls for taxpayers to buy the place from its current owner, the California Department of Transportation, then sell it to a contractor specializing in restoration.

Proponents hope the plan, which is scheduled for City Council consideration next month, can become a model for solving a problem that has festered for years in this San Gabriel Valley city.

Beginning about three decades ago, Caltrans purchased about 600 homes on the highly controversial freeway extension route, little dreaming that the project would still be mired in litigation so many years later. It rented out many of the properties, but others stood vacant and fell into disrepair.

The neglected properties have long aggravated South Pasadena residents already unhappy about the prospects of having a freeway slice through their quiet, middle-class community of well-kept older homes and tree-lined streets.

“Other properties in this neighborhood have been improved, while this eyesore just gets worse,” said Glen Duncan, who lives hear the Berkshire Avenue property. “Even the transients don’t live there anymore.”

The Berkshire Avenue house is one of more than 50 that Caltrans decided it no longer needed when it twice altered the route of the proposed 6.2-mile freeway extension. It has been selling off some of the homes. But others have remained under state ownership, falling further and further into decay--none more than the Berkshire Avenue house.

“It is the poster child for Caltrans’ demolition by neglect,” Councilman Harry Knapp said. “There is no better place for the city to try to restore to its former glory.”

If a court injunction had not prevented demolition on the route, Caltrans would have bulldozed the two-story house long ago, a Caltrans official said.

During the two decades it has sat empty, the floors have buckled, ceilings have collapsed and paint has blistered. Arsonists nearly finished it off twice; vandals chipped away at it repeatedly.

Caltrans officials gave up on the house three years ago, determining that it was not worth the cost to save it.

“If we had a flash flood, it would roll down the hill there,” said Larry Staley, a Caltrans manager for the freeway project.

In recent years the agency has spent millions restoring some of its most valuable and historic properties, but it is clearly tired of its role as landlord.

“We shouldn’t be in the property business long term,” conceded Cleavon Govan, Caltrans senior environmental planner.

So the state has agreed to let the city have the house for $128,000 plus a patch of city-owned land nearby that is next to a freeway offramp.

City Manager Sean Joyce said he will recommend that the council approve the deal after its Oct. 21 public hearing on the proposal.

“This deal will benefit the entire community,” Joyce said, adding that the house “is in . . . a beautiful neighborhood, and it is clearly an eyesore.”

The city would choose from among contractors with expertise in rehabilitating historic properties and would help with expenses by guaranteeing loans for renovation work, Joyce said.

If it is determined that the structure is beyond repair, the city would move another house from the same historic period there to replace it, he said.

City officials began considering purchasing homes such as the one on Berkshire Avenue after Caltrans decided to sell some of the surplus properties to an organization that wanted to use them for low- and moderate-cost housing. The proposal touched off an uproar from residents, but the city was unable to stop the project.

With the city as purchaser, it at least will have some control over what eventually becomes of the Berkshire Avenue site and any other properties Caltrans puts on the market, Joyce said.