Fullerton residents see downside of downtown

So when he learned about SoCo Walk, a mixed-use project in downtown Fullerton that opened in late 2006, he thought he had found a perfect solution. Kang and his wife grabbed one of the town homes and now run their business on the first floor.

But the experiment in urban living isn't working out the way Kang had imagined. Business is suffering because the project wasn't well planned, he said. And he worries that his downtown neighbors might be a bit too gritty for his family's taste.

"There's gangsters. There's drug dealing," he said. "I can't even walk outside . . . because somebody is going to come up to you and ask for change."

In an era of soaring gas prices and lengthy commutes, downtown urbanization projects such as SoCo Walk -- which is next to the busy Santa Fe Depot that serves Amtrak and Metrolink trains -- are touted as ways to put housing, shopping and work close together.

Cities across the state -- from Salinas to Whittier -- have ambitious plans to transform their downtowns into urban centers. Tiny Cotati (population 7,200) in Northern California and Copperopolis (population.2,300) near Stockton -- are in on the urban trend.

But in Fullerton, an ambitious effort to rebuild downtown with live/work and mixed-use projects is proving a harder sell.

Discontent with SoCo Walk abounds. Neighbors of the project say its residents don't mix with the existing community. And though some SoCo Walk residents say their lives improved when they dropped the commute, many worry they're too close to downtown and all its attendant problems. The harshest critics say the project was badly executed.

Against this backdrop, Fullerton officials are contemplating approving Amerige Court, a five-story mixed-use complex with more than 100 residential units and 30,000 square feet of retail and office space in the heart of downtown. The Planning Commission voted last month against recommending the project to the City Council, which takes up the project today.

SoCo Walk was controversial from the start. To make room for the project, landowners razed several single-family homes -- eliminating a chunk of the Truslow neighborhood, a mostly poor, predominantly Latino community. Inside the SoCo Walk, a coffee shop is closed. A sign on the door says developers refused to provide access to adequate electricity for a food-service business. A yogurt shop also remains shuttered.