Police Stations

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.

A $171-million bond measure that would add new police stations and expand others may have widespread backing at City Hall, but community leaders and political pundits say chances are slim that voters will give the measure the necessary two-thirds vote to pass. And while advocates of the measure agree that the key to getting widespread support will be a coordinated citywide campaign to promote the proposal, so far it is uncertain who will champion the cause.

A proposal to convert a vacant 1920s Los Angeles police station house in Highland Park to offices and build 30 adjoining retail stores has received the preliminary endorsement of Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alatorre. The plan was selected over three others, including one to convert it to a live theater serving food and drink and another to turn the 60-year-old red-brick building into a permanent film site. Movie studios now use the station about 100 days a year to film jail scenes.

Los Angeles City Councilman Ernani Bernardi asked the council Tuesday to call for establishment of a police substation in the Panorama Mall, where a gang-related slaying occurred earlier this month. The councilman, whose district includes Panorama City where the mall is located, introduced the motion Tuesday after the mall's owners promised to provide free space for such a substation, said David Mays, his chief deputy. "We want to establish it right away--before the holiday season," Mays said.

The city attorney's office may go to court to get access to a Mission Hills property to determine whether it is feasible as the site for a sixth police station in the San Fernando Valley, officials said Monday. The City Council's Public Safety Committee recommended Monday that attorneys be given authority to seek a court order if a new owner of the property continues the policy of the previous owner to deny the city access to the site. DaimlerChrysler purchased the property on Nov.

Flush with a $10.8-million windfall from the state, a City Council panel asked the Los Angeles Police Department on Friday to develop a detailed plan to use the money to create a sixth police station in the San Fernando Valley. The Public Safety Committee asked that the plan evaluate a variety of locations, including the former campus of Alemany High School in Mission Hills, for the new station and a second administrative bureau for the Valley.

Ten years after it was first promised, city officials on Monday moved to buy land in Mission Hills for a sixth police station in the San Fernando Valley. With the qualified backing of Police Chief Bernard Parks, two City Council committees voted to spend $4 million to buy the land and to explore borrowing more money to fund additional construction costs. The action was linked to the future, as well as the past.

A proposal to shift city funds previously designated for subway construction to purchase a Department of Water and Power building for use as an additional Valley police station and bureau should reach the City Council next Wednesday. In a city Transportation Committee meeting Tuesday, DWP officials promised to present the city with a formal appraisal of the 300,000-square-foot building by Friday.

The Anthony Building, now home to the meter readers and lab technicians of the Department of Water and Power, is a step closer to housing the Valley's second police bureau. At its Wednesday meeting, the City Council's Transportation Committee directed the city's chief legislative analyst to negotiate a purchase price with the DWP for the Arleta Avenue building, which the DWP said was worth $50 million to $55 million, based on a recent appraisal.

Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon said Thursday that a decision regarding a possible new police station on the site of the former General Motors assembly plant will be made within a month. "We are negotiating on the General Motors site and we are still exploring and having discussions about the Alemany site," Alarcon said, referring to the former Rinaldi Street location of Alemany High School.