With the exception of occasional transients occupying them, two homes, located at 2910 and 2914 Hill St., had sat vacant since being built in 2003 because neither had street access, utilities or certificates of occupancy. On Sept. 25, after being the centerpiece of years of postponed court dates, various ownerships, bureaucratic red tape and even arson, the houses were finally razed.
The original developer, Wayne Ballinger, had never obtained street access or easements to connect electric, gas and water lines to the property. Because he never did so, and because he kept working on the houses after the City of Long Beach gave him a stop-work order, the City refused to issue occupancy permits for the houses.
Although the buildings were actually located within the city limits of Long Beach, the portion of Hill Street adjacent to their front yards was in Signal Hill.
“[Signal Hill’s] property literally stops on the south curb of Hill Street,” Signal Hill Mayor Larry Forester told the Signal Tribune this week. “Even the sidewalks would be considered Long Beach.”
However, possibly because they were on a steep hill and next to Discovery Well Park in Signal Hill, it was common public perception that the homes were indeed located in that city, even though their location was part of Long Beach’s 4th Council District.
“The impact on the community is that they thought Signal Hill was asleep at the wheel,” Forester said. “And yet, we had no control.”
Calling the homes a waste of time and money, Forester said the houses, which had once been assessed at $1 million each, never should have been built.
“How do you permit something without having knowledge of sewage, water, gas and electricity?” he asked, adding that the homes had been permitted without the proper questions asked and paperwork provided. “This is the first time I’ve heard of any city permitting the way they did,” he said.
Back in the early 2000s, Signal Hill staff members observed something out of the ordinary.
“It was 12 or 13 years ago the City of Signal Hill noticed somebody digging foundations for a new development there next to Hill Street,” said Signal Hill City Manager Charlie Honeycutt. “We had just completed a lot of the hilltop development there, so we were very familiar with the utility issues that we experienced up there, and we knew that there would be some problems.
[aesop_image imgwidth=”500px” img=”http://www.signaltribunenewspaper.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Screen-Shot-2015-10-02-at-9.31.28-AM.png” credit=”Neena Strichart/Signal Tribune” align=”right” lightbox=”on” caption=”In a photo taken just days before their demolition, two million-dollar homes, located at 2910 and 2914 Hill St., sit vacant after more than a decade of being targets of vandalism, squatting and bureaucratic red tape. ” captionposition=”right”] “We put Long Beach on notice— ‘Hey, there’s somebody out here digging foundations. You’ve got utility problems.’ However, construction continued. I think at some point Long Beach put the developer on notice, and the developer decided to carry on regardless of Long Beach issuing a stop-work order.”
Despite any action by the cities of Long Beach and Signal Hill, construction of the homes continued.
“We ended up with two houses with no water or sewer or electricity,” the city manager said. “The other issue was that there was no way to get in and out of the property. There was no access. You couldn’t turn a car into or out of the driveways because the street was too narrow.”
In 2006, two groups of real-estate investors purchased the houses and unsuccessfully attempted to acquire the necessary driveway and utility easements.
On Sept. 20, 2007, reporter Nick Diamantides, in a Signal Tribune story, wrote: “The two houses across the street from Discovery Well Park are less than three years old, have five bedrooms, three-car garages and panoramic views. They are appraised at about $1.2 million each. But they have no access to the public street, no utilities, and no certificates of occupancy. No one has ever lived in them, and unless something changes in the near future, they will be bulldozed by the City of Long Beach.”
Nancy Maloy, one of the co-owners at the time, called the situation a nightmare. “We had no idea we would encounter this much trouble in just getting access to the street and easements for utilities,” she said.
Maloy, her husband Harrell, Owen Lee, and Peter Baer— all real-estate investors— had taken over the homes as foreclosure properties a year prior, hoping to resolve the access and easement issues and place them on the market in a short time, unaware that they were built amidst city warnings regarding the major problems with driveway access and utility easements.
“Meanwhile, F&M Bank has called our loans and filed a foreclosure,” Maloy added at the time. “On top of that, the City of Long Beach has told us that at some point in the future, unless we get driveway access and utilities, the homes will have to be bulldozed.”
In April of 2008, Tarzana-based 6 Angels LLC purchased the properties from Farmers & Merchants Bank for about $800,000.
In July of 2008, the City of Long Beach’s code-enforcement division gave 6 Angels until Aug. 3 of that year to begin work on the code violations that existed in both houses and to show that progress was being made on obtaining the driveway and utility easements. 6 Angels appealed the order issued by the code-enforcement division.
During the appeal process, Brian Angel of 6 Angels told the board that since his company had only owned the houses for about four months, he should be given more time to show that the homes could soon be legally occupied. In an Aug. 21, 2008 Signal Tribune story, he said that, because the two lots and two adjacent lots were at one time all owned by one entity, he was allowed to obtain an ‘easement by necessity,’ which meant the adjacent property owners could not deny him access to the homes.
[aesop_image imgwidth=”500px” img=”http://www.signaltribunenewspaper.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Screen-Shot-2015-10-02-at-9.31.39-AM.png” credit=”Cory Bilicko/Signal Tribune” align=”center” lightbox=”on” caption=”A photo taken Sept. 28 shows the remains of the two homes at 2910 and 2914 Hill St. after they were demolished days before.” captionposition=”center”] He explained that the adjacent property owners were asking for what he considered an exorbitant price for the easements, which drove him to ask the courts to grant him the easements instead.
“The process takes about three months, and my attorney is right now preparing the papers to file,” he said in August of 2008. “Meanwhile, the City (Long Beach) has basically told me they won’t allow me to do any work on the code violations until I figure out my access issues.”
According to the Aug. 21, 2008 Signal Tribune story, Long Beach’s code-enforcement officer had determined that the buildings had deficiencies in their electrical, plumbing and mechanical systems that needed to be remedied, but because the homes had been constructed five years previously, the building permits had expired.
“I have no problem applying for the building permits, but changes have occurred in the building codes since the original permits were issued,” Angel said in August of that year. “But the head of the building department said we could comply with the codes that were in effect when the original permits were issued.”
Angel emphasized that addressing the code deficiencies could not happen until the easements were obtained. Ballinger, the original builder and former partner of a company called Waymar Homes, had constructed the houses despite warnings from Long Beach and Signal Hill officials about driveway access and utility easements. Signal Hill officials refused to grant driveway access to Hill Street because it was impossible to turn a vehicle in and out of the driveways without hitting the median island and because the steepness of the street prevented drivers exiting the driveways from seeing oncoming cars.
Angel said at the time that his attorney was preparing court papers to obtain driveway access to the homes from their back yards on a path that would connect them to Orizaba Avenue. He said he was also proposing a plan that might persuade Signal Hill officials to grant driveway access to Hill Street. The plan called for creating an additional lane for traffic out of the two front yards. That lane would allow cars to enter and exit the driveways without affecting traffic on Hill Street. Angel told the board that it would be several weeks before he knew what Signal Hill thought about that idea.
The Long Beach Board of Examiners, Appeals and Condemnations then unanimously voted to give 6 Angels 30 days to show that progress was being made in obtaining the easements. Board chair Christopher Brown noted that the plan was likely the start of a months-long process during which Angel would be regularly reporting to the board on the progress his company was making. However, Brown warned that if it ever became apparent that easements could not be obtained or code violations could not be fixed, the board would be forced to order that the two homes be demolished.
[aesop_image imgwidth=”500px” img=”http://www.signaltribunenewspaper.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Untitled-Infographic-3.jpeg” credit=”Created by Denny Cristales/Signal Tribune” align=”right” lightbox=”on” caption=”Timeline showing a history of the homes at 2910 and 2914 Hill St. that were built in 2003 and razed on Sept. 25, 2015″ captionposition=”right”] On Nov. 20, 2008, the Signal Tribune reported that the homes were still vacant with no utilities and no driveways connecting them to a public street. 6 Angels had spent several months trying to address issues but had made little progress.
“We have put things in motion, and we are continuing to talk to property owners and city officials in Long Beach and Signal Hill,” Angel told the Signal Tribune. “Unfortunately, the legal process is very slow.”
A hearing before the Long Beach Board of Examiners, Appeals and Condemnations had been scheduled for Nov. 17 but was continued to Dec. 15.
“We had some interested parties show up on the title report who were not notified of the hearing, so we had to continue it,” said Tom Slater, Long Beach building code official, for that story. He added that the purpose of the hearing was to consider Angel’s request for a 60-day extension on the deadline for compliance with city codes.
Angel explained why he thought the extension was necessary. “We are trying to work with the City of Signal Hill to gain access from the front,” he said at the time. “So far, they have not approved our idea.”
He explained that a company representative had met with then Signal Hill Public Works Director Barbara Munoz to suggest widening Hill Street where it abuts the front yards of the homes. “That would add a lane to the street, allowing cars to slow down before turning into the driveways, and also give them a place to wait before entering the traffic lane of the street,” Angel said.
Munoz told the Signal Tribune for that story that she had met with 6 Angels’ representative in September and informed him that if they wanted to pursue that idea, they would need to hire a traffic engineer to prepare a plan that would meet all traffic standards. She added that she didn’t think the plan would indeed meet those standards.
“I have not heard from them since September,” she said, adding that she had advised the representative that it would probably be better to try to obtain easements connecting the properties’ back yards to Orizaba Avenue.
Angel had hired a traffic engineer to study the feasibility of widening Hill Street in front of the homes, but the study had not yet been completed by press time for that Nov. 20, 2008 article. “We’ve also filed lawsuits against the two lots below us to gain easement rights,” he said. “The lawsuits were filed about a month ago, but it takes time.”
He added that his company would attempt to contact the property owners the following week in hopes of reaching an out-of-court settlement. “Those easements would actually benefit them because that would allow them to develop those lots,” Angel said. “If we get that resolved, everything else is easy.” He explained that the easements would accommodate driveways as well as underground utility connections.
“This is no small feat,” Slater said. “Those properties have had problems, and that’s why they are still sitting vacant today.”
Angel said he was hopeful that all the problems would be resolved by March of 2009. He said he could not proceed with renovations to bring the buildings up to city code compliance until the easement issues were fixed.
“Unfortunately, if I do not gain access to the properties, the City will order the buildings torn down,” he said. “But I am optimistic. I believe we will be able to get the easements.”
The above is part one of a three-part story. The Signal Tribune will publish parts two and three in its next two issues.
