Makeover for old steel town

North Fontana, long an enclave of low-income African Americans, is now being proposed as the site for Fontana’s most expensive housing and commercial developments. Some see this as progress, others as an attempt to erase this part of San Bernardino County’s cultural history.

Beginnings

Look at the seal of Fontana and you can divine the entire history of the city: grapes for what was once booming vineyards; citrus groves and chicken ranches; and a prominent steel mill for the industry that defined the community from 1942 to 1984.

---

FOR THE RECORD:
Neighborly Advice —An article about north Fontana in Sunday’s Real Estate section referred to a 210 Freeway extension as having opened in 2004. The freeway segment opened in November 2002.

---

Many African Americans settled in north Fontana — an area north of Baseline Avenue that remained unincorporated until 1985, when it was annexed into the city of Fontana — and worked at the Kaiser Steel mill. Even after the mill closed, the population remained. Now this 8,900-acre area is experiencing a painful growth spurt, and large new homes dwarf modest single-family dwellings.For years, the community has been underserved and overlooked by the rest of the city, says Ellen Turner, president of the Rialto/Fontana chapter of the NAACP, who has lived here since 1968. “Most of the community still has no streetlights, no sidewalks and no gutters.”

It’s a claim not in dispute but something City Manager Ken Hunt said would change with $100 million in future capital improvements.

The city has admitted that the area lacks improvements. It formed the North Fontana Redevelopment Project in 1982. But not much changed until master-planned communities such as Hunter’s Ridge and Heritage Village sprang up. Some fear developments like these will displace this longtime community.

When the 210 Freeway extension came in 2004, it changed the landscape in north Fontana. Suddenly, people saw it as a viable place to live and from which to commute to various parts of Los Angeles County. And with that change came much more interest from developers who saw raw land ready for thousands of new homes and businesses.

The conflict

When you tear down the old, you tear down history, is the view of some residents.

In August, the Jessie Turner Community Center was demolished to make way for commercial development. The center, a landmark and gathering place for the African American community, was named after local activist Jessie Turner, Ellen Turner’s mother.

There are plans to rebuild it as the Jessie Turner Health and Fitness Community Center on 40 acres, but the new center is at least five years from completion and located farther away. Some fear that it will no longer serve the community. And now, the black community’s Bethel AME Church is facing a possible disruption too. The city wants to widen the two-lane street it sits on and take a 30-foot right-of-way, which could mean demolishing part of the church. “I understand and recognize that Fontana has to grow up economically and in terms of the basic services provided,” said Pastor John Edward Cager III. “But you want to make sure that … you don’t pay a human and cultural cost.”

The church, which has a congregation of about 400, was built on 2 acres in the 1940s and is one of the few old buildings left on Baseline Avenue. The rest of the area has been leveled. Bulldozers are parked on most corners, poised to raze whatever is left and put in housing and commercial enterprises.

“It’s like they’re trying to eradicate any history of north Fontana,” said Turner, 53. “If the church leaves, it’s all gone.”

Mayor Mark Nuaimi said the city is still in negotiations over what to do about the church.

Housing stock

The comparison between the older homes of north Fontana and the new suburban developments is startling. Large and elaborate tract homes sit behind tall walls and a single road often separates them from two-bedroom, one-bathroom homes with sometimes-muddy yards attesting to the lack of roof gutters.

The population of Fontana has 151,965 residents, with about half of that population already living in master-planned communities in north Fontana, according to the city. The entire area of north Fontana is included in the North Economic Zone, where developers such as Lennar Homes and KB Homes are expected to build more than 10,000 single-family houses and condos in the next year.

Report card

There are four elementary schools in north Fontana. Sierra Lakes Elementary scored 763 out of 1,000 points on the 2005 Academic Performance Index Growth Report; Dorothy Grant Elementary, 739; Tokay Elementary, 722; and Juniper Elementary, 688. Students attend Wayne Ruble Middle School, which scored 664, and A.B. Miller High School, which scored 658.

Historical values

Residential resales:

Year...Median Price

1990...$125,000

1995...$105,000

2000...$132,500

2004...$345,000

2005...$425,000

*

---

Sources: California Department of Education, https://www.cde.ca.gov ; city of Fontana, https://www.fontana.org/index.htm ; Fontana Department of Housing and Business Development, https://www.fontanabusiness.org ; DataQuick Information Systems.