Work Set to Begin on 6th Police Station

Twelve years after promising to build a sixth police station in the San Fernando Valley, officials announced Monday that bulldozers will begin grading a site in Mission Hills this week for the new LAPD station, with construction expected to be completed in 2003.

The project had been hamstrung for more than a decade by a lack of funding and debate over the best location. The Los Angeles Police Department recently acquired title to the three-acre site at 11121 N. Sepulveda Blvd., just north of the San Fernando Mission.

“This is important because we desperately need another division in the San Fernando Valley,” said Councilman Hal Bernson, whose district includes the station site. “We are happy it is getting started. Hopefully, it will help reduce crime.”

The five existing police stations in the Valley each cover an average of 45 square miles, more than twice the area policed on average by non-Valley police stations.

Officials say the Foothill and Devonshire divisions will be helped the most by the new station. Emergency response time averaged 10 1/2 minutes in the Foothill Division last year and 10 minutes in Devonshire. In comparison, officers responded in an average of seven minutes in the Newton Division outside the Valley.

“The creation of the North Valley Community Station will allow the department to reduce the coverage area of the other five stations,” said Sgt. John Pasquariello, an LAPD spokesman. “It is anticipated that this reduction will result in a decrease in officer response times for call for service throughout the San Fernando Valley.”

Police Chief Bernard C. Parks is scheduled to join Mayor Richard Riordan, Bernson and others for a groundbreaking ceremony Thursday. Grading is scheduled to begin the same day.

Although work will not be completed until long after Riordan leaves office in July, the mayor has set a high priority on getting the project started during his term.

“It really focuses on one of his priorities, which is community policing,” said Peter Hidalgo, a spokesman for Riordan.

The City Council last year allocated $3 million to buy the site and $1.3 million for design work for the 54,000-square-foot station and to grade and prepare the land.

The LAPD hopes to seek and award construction bids this summer so that the station can begin operation in September 2003, said Sgt. Patrick McAree, the project manager for the station.

City officials plan to obtain the remaining $12 million for construction through debt financing to be approved when the contract is awarded.

The money for buying and preparing the site came from 1989’s Proposition 2, a $176-million bond measure that included the promise of funds for a sixth Valley station. However, other police projects turned out to be more expensive than expected, so the city ran out of bond funds before it could build the North Valley station.

That failure to deliver on the promised station was seized upon by Valley civic leaders, who fought subsequent police bond measures over the last five years, contributing to their defeat.

“They know they won’t be able to get police bond issues passed in the city until they deliver on this project,” said Harry Coleman, president of the North Hills Community Coordinating Council.