Former Alemany High Site Proposed for LAPD Station

The Los Angeles Police Department wants to build its sixth Valley station on the former site of Alemany High School in Mission Hills, officials said Wednesday.

Los Angeles Catholic Archdiocese representatives said they are open to the proposal, and LAPD officers said they hope to have the station in operation in trailers before the end of the year.

“This would be a temporary, stopgap measure,” Yvette Sanchez-Owens, commanding officer of the LAPD’s Facilities Management Division, said. “In the future we could still do a permanent structure there when we have the money.”

Police Commissioner Bert Boeckmann, a Valley resident, said the Alemany property appears to be a good site, although the proposal needs to be refined.

The failure of a $744-million police and fire bond measure on the April ballot means there is no new money for building another Valley police station. But LAPD officials say there is about $10.5 million in surplus funds from a previous police bond measure.

It would cost about $7 million to create a temporary police station and bureau administrative office on the former Alemany site, according to a report by Police Chief Bernard Parks.

“This proposal is in line with the compelling public safety needs in the Valley,” Parks said, adding that the new facilities “will allow for improved response times by reducing the geographic size of each Valley station [service area] and for better management of Valley police operations.”

Police commissioners have tentatively signed off on the concept, which has to be refined and sent to the City Council before the LAPD can enter negotiations with the archdiocese, Sanchez-Owens said. The archdiocese has had talks with the LAPD and is willing to make part of its Mission Hills property available on a long-term lease, said Gregory Coiro, a spokesman.

“The archdiocese is open to the idea,” he said.

Boeckmann said creating a sixth station is essential for the Valley.

“With the growth we have had in the Valley, this will allow us to better serve the citizens out here,” Boeckmann said. “It’s extremely important.”

The LAPD would use 3.2 acres of land on the former Alemany High School campus on Rinaldi Street in Mission Hills. The school was moved to a nearby campus on San Fernando Mission Boulevard by the Catholic Archdiocese because of damage from the Northridge earthquake.

The department’s focus on the quake-damaged campus came as a study concluded Wednesday that the Department of Water and Power’s Valley headquarters building would not be an acceptable site.

The study findings by City Administrative Officer Paul Cauley were not a surprise to LAPD officials, who had long maintained that the DWP building was inappropriate for police facilities and would cost too much to upgrade to police standards.

The proposal by council members to buy the DWP building and convert it to police uses was made less financially feasible recently when the Public Works Board decided not to locate a new 911 center in the Sun Valley building.

But even if the 911 facility had been located in the DWP building, it would cost the city $26 million more to use the Anthony Office Building than to build new structures for all of the various police facilities, Cauley concluded.