Storage

The Building and Safety Commission on Tuesday upheld a city decision to allow the construction of two three-story buildings at a self-serve storage facility in Glassell Park, where residents complain the structures block their view of the hills. Opponents, who have argued that the Department of Building and Safety abused its discretion in approving the work, said they will appeal the commission's decision.

In response to opposition from residents, the City Council has rejected plans for a self-storage yard in a west Anaheim industrial area. Caster Family Enterprises of San Diego proposed a 161,800-square-foot storage facility on La Palma Avenue west of Gilbert Street. "I'm very disappointed," Brian R. Caster, the company's chief executive officer, told the council after the vote. Caster said he closed escrow on the nearly 4-acre site for $3.

The Los Angeles Board of Public Works on Monday awarded a $64,000 contract to build a permanent hazardous waste storage area at the Lopez Canyon landfill in Lake View Terrace. Hazardous wastes found and removed from garbage being dumped at the city-owned landfill are to be kept in the storage area before being transported to disposal sites designated for dangerous material, city officials said. It is illegal to dump hazardous materials at Lopez Canyon. The award of the contract to the Scott Co.

After a two-month investigation, police arrested a man they say took stereos, sporting goods and other items from mini-storage lockers throughout Orange County and stashed them in his own units. Stephen Dale Bernard, 42, of Placentia, was arrested on suspicion of possession of methamphetamine and stolen property, Brea police said Friday.

The City Council on Monday unanimously approved a motion introduced by Mayor Raul Godinez II that will require local firearms dealers to store their weapons more securely or face the loss of their licenses. The ordinance, which will go into effect in July, closes a loophole in state law that exempts firearms dealers in cities with fewer than 50,000 residents from the most stringent storage requirements.

On the edge of Terminal Island where the land looks like a bombed-out war zone, bulldozers are reshaping the earth to build the West Coast's largest facility for stockpiling coal and petroleum coke. When the $132-million Los Angeles Export Terminal, or LAXT, is completed in late 1997, black mountains of dusty coal and coke will cover 111 acres, an area the size of nearly 100 football fields.

Autopsies conducted Friday on the decomposed bodies of two men and a woman discovered in two trunks and a cardboard box at a U-Haul storage center in Northridge failed to reveal the causes of death, a coroner's spokesman said. Coroner's spokesman Scott Carrier said three doctors examined each body, but extensive decay made it impossible to determine the age or race of any of the victims, or how they died. Coroner's officials may consult a forensic anthropologist, he said.

Reacting to fears about toxic waste in Pico Rivera, Mayor John G. Chavez on Thursday called for a special committee to negotiate a compromise on the storage of hazardous chemicals in the city. Chavez asked seven community leaders to join him in a dialogue with Southern California Gas Co.

For some collectors, aging fine wine is as simple as a stroll to the cellar. But others have little access to the dark and silent temperature-controlled havens where the grapes of worth are stored. Instead, they stash cases of wine in bedroom closets and on top of refrigerators where hefty investments easily can turn sour. In the last year, though, at least four Southern California self-storage facilities have opened wine cellars for enthusiasts who don't have their own.