12 WEEKEND EDITION, MARCH 1-2, 2008 A newspaper with issues Local Owners blame city for the disarray
By CHIARA CANZI Special to the Daily Press
CITYWIDE The pungent stench of urine prickles the nostrils as one inches closer to the metallic fence that isolates a one-story bungalow on California Avenue. Empty beer bottles and soda cans decorate the obviously unkept front lawn while the porch sits empty, dirty and home to old newspapers and half-eaten sandwiches.
The home, located at 1329 California Ave., has become an eyesore in the community and the source of many complaints from residents who want it cleaned up. It is just one on a long list of lots that are waiting for the Planning Commission’s approval for redevelopment, or are in a legal limbo going from one owner to the next.
Either way, properties like it have become a problem.
Code Complaint Officer Jacqueline Cochran works closely with residents to solve disputes of any kind and vacant properties have now topped her list of priorities. The department receive complaints of a disparate nature and vacant properties seem to be getting a lot of interest.
“The complaints vary from overgrown vegetation, trash, vagrancy, homeless people living there,” Cochran said.
On average, the department receives one complaint a month, and it is Cochran’s job to make sure owners of the vacant properties clean them up.
“After we receive a complaint we go out to the particular location to assess the situation and see the alleged complaint,” she said.
It is usually easy to see “because we find shopping carts and baskets and bags, beer cans, and evidence of people sitting and eating right there.”
“You either see that or you see people living there,” she added.
Cochran works closely with the Santa Monica Police Department and the Homeless Liaison Program team. Neighborhood resource officers patrol specific areas of the city and report any disturbance to code compliance.
“The most recurring problems with vacant properties are trespassing, drinking on the property, people carrying and using drugs and alcohol, but it has not been that bad in the last few years,” SMPD spokesman Lt. Alex Padilla said. “We come in when properties start to become eyesores and people start using it as a crash pad.”
The way officers monitor properties is a simple one.
“We put up a fence and then someone cuts a hole in it, we see it and we can react and monitor, to avoid it happening again,” Padilla said.
In an agenda item for the Planning Commission dated Feb.15, 2006, the city’s planning staff recommended the approval of the application submitted by the owners of the property on California, Kevin and Sylvia Donnelly and their management firm, DLD Management Group. The owners requested a permit to build six condominium units. Under city law, the Planning Commission “is the responsible authority to approve, conditionally approve or deny tentative subdivision map applications.”
To date, the owners have obtained all planning entitlements from City Hall, but the final application for plan checks has not been submitted. Gay Forbes, city development services officer, said it usually takes months to obtain the proper permits from City Hall. The project is also subject to review by the Architectural Review Board.
Co-owner of the California property, David Habibi, said the development process is long, and therefore makes it difficult to maintain the property.
“We got approval for the 6-unit town-house,” but it has taken more than three years, Habibi said.
“It’s the bureaucracy in Santa Monica and then you have the rent control people who make it hard for anyone to build new structures,” he said.
Habibi and the architects are currently working on designing the interior for each of the six town homes.
“It’s going to be ready in six months and then it will take approximately a year and a half to complete the building process,” he said.
But a year and a half may be too long for the residents that live next to the vacant home. Cochran and Padilla both acknowledged that the California Avenue property has been a big concern.
Residents are weary of answering the door or speak to the press on the matter, but some have said that homelessness and alcohol have been their biggest fears.
Many of the neighbors are parents of kids who attend Lincoln Middle School, which is located right across the street from the vacant property. Assistant Principal Carl Hobkirk said that the school has not had any issues with the property recently, but there was one isolated incident a few years ago.
“I know there are rumors going around that the property is dangerous and that has given the police a hard time,” Hobkirk said. “I know that rumors were circulating that some kids went in the home either before or after school to do something and it was an unsupervised situation, and it may have been dangerous.”
Police said they are patrolling the area when children enter and exit the school.
“We make periodic checks,” Padilla said of all properties around the city. “When we see that the property has been utilized by unauthorized people, we fill out the no trespassing letter and post it, so that anyone who does that can be arrested.”
According to the current projects list issued by the planning department, most abandoned buildings have owners. When the situation gets so bad that officers receive complaints, Cochran has to follow strict protocol before anything can be done.
“So we contact [the owners] and we write a letter telling them we will remove all things in their property,” she said. “If the situation becomes a chronic situation then we try to come up with different possibilities.”
Buildings cannot be knocked down before the new plans are approved by the city.
“The properties are eyesores,” said Zina Josephs, president of the Friends of Sunset Park neighborhood association. “I have heard complaints about two properties near the abandoned building on 2300 block of Ocean Park Blvd.”
A small 2-story building east of Ocean Park Boulevard was put into conservatorship because of excessive code violations and residents feel something should be done about it.
“I see the owner is still there — he … carries his money to Bank of America in a sock, an always wears a yellow construction helmet,” Josephs said.
Last time he was in court, recalls Josephs, the man seemed to be running “a flop-house for illegal aliens, with very overcrowded and unsanitary conditions.”
Giovanni Mannara has lived on Ocean Park Boulevard for almost all of his life, but for the past 10 years he has noticed that boarded up buildings around Santa Monica College have atracted dirt and crime.
“There are three buildings on Ocean Park Boulevard and 14th Street that have been empty for so long,” Mannara said.
People who trespassed onto those 1-story homes have encountered police multiple times.
“One time the police arrested people who gathered there to smoke pot,” Mannara said.
Residents often have to deal with the consequences as well. Mannara had received mail belonging to people who used to live in those homes for a long time.
“It is a problem, and I had to tell the postman not to give me their mail.”
While police have inspected that property, the list of vacant and waiting-to-be-approved ones are stocking up.
“The problem lies with the city,” said Jeff Jarow, a Santa Monica resident and commercial real estate agent. “It just takes so long to get permits that when you purchase a property it may take up to a year to start building.”
For Jarow, that nuisance is the slippery slope for all property owners. Oftentimes, when a landlord vacates the property for inspection by City Hall, it may take up to six months for the planning department to begin the process for redevelopment.
“During that time, the landlord does not want to spend money fixing it, cutting the
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 1, 2008. Read the original PDF.