Proposed Site for Autopsy Lab Rejected

NORTHRIDGE —  Body bags and restaurants just don’t mix.

After hearing from nearby merchants who fear that the steady arrival and departure of corpses would hurt business, a city planning commission on Thursday rejected a privately run autopsy lab proposed for a Tujunga retail district.

By a 3-2 vote, the North Area Planning Commission denied Vidal Herrera’s request for a zoning exception that would have allowed him to open a lab on a stretch of Foothill Boulevard surrounded by restaurants, stores and repair shops.

Herrera, a La Crescenta autopsy technician, owns Autopsy/Post Services, which conducts private forensic exams.

Herrera said the vote wasn’t a surprise. The city planning staff had prepared a report recommending the commission reject the business--a stance supported by Councilman Joel Wachs, who represents the area.

“I’ll go on. Life’s not over,” Herrera said, adding that he will appeal the decision to the City Council. Herrera said he will sue the city if it rejects his appeal.

Several neighborhood business owners complained that his planned lab, at 7245 Foothill Blvd., lacks a rear entrance for loading and unloading bodies. During the commission meeting at Cal State Northridge, several residents said they did not want bodies being taken into the lab through its front entrance.

“We want to walk down the street and not see body bags,” said Charlotte Leu, co-president of the Merchants Assn. of Sunland/Tujunga, who owns an art studio on nearby Commerce Avenue. “It’s not a personal thing against him. We’re just really struggling to rebuild Tujunga.”

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Residents also complained that the lab site lacks sufficient street parking. Herrera had asked for an exception to the Foothill Boulevard Specific Plan, which calls for retail stores and “pedestrian friendly” businesses.

The city Building and Safety Department had given Herrera a permit to convert the 2,400-square-foot storefront retail space into a lab, but city planning officials halted the work, saying the area wasn’t zoned for such a business.

Herrera said he had already spent nearly $200,000 on improvements when inspectors issued a stop-work order, saying the conversion permit wasn’t cleared by the city Planning Department.

Herrera’s attorney, Fred Gaines, said he had hoped the commission would compromise and allow deliveries to the lab under certain conditions. Herrera said he expected five or six bodies a week.

“They’re not wheeling bodies down the [Santa Monica] Third Street Promenade,” Gaines said, downplaying the volume of pedestrian traffic on the Tujunga street. “This is just fear of the whole topic.”