WESTMINSTER : Agency to Discuss Stereo Store Closure

The Redevelopment Agency will hold a public hearing Tuesday night to discuss the proposed condemnation of a Westminster Boulevard stereo store to create a parking lot for a shopping center.

The agency has proposed what would be its first-ever use of eminent domain to close the Super Sound Car Stereo store at 6699 Westminster Blvd., angering the owner, Boo Yun Kim.

“I feel really bad because they’re pushing me out,” said Kim, 25. “They should at least give me a chance to stay in the area. If they move me out, I have to file bankruptcy” due to the interruption of business and consequent inability to pay back loans.

“I’ve got a good business and they just want to move me out without a compromise,” added Kim, who started the store one year ago. “They haven’t offered me anything (and) never put anything in writing.”

However, agency director Don Anderson said the agency has made an offer to pay for the cost of relocating the business, but he would not reveal the amount.

“We’ve met (Kim and his consultant) and made an offer to them. They’ve come back with counteroffers that we don’t feel are reasonable,” he said.

The agency, which was created in 1982, has never used eminent domain to acquire or condemn a property.

Anderson said closing the stereo store is a necessary part of the continuing redevelopment of properties along Westminster Boulevard. The store is located next to property on which the agency and the Long Beach-based IDM development firm are constructing a 40-acre shopping center. The center is expected to generate more than $1 million in sales tax revenue for the financially strapped city.

“This is the largest redevelopment project to date, and it’s important not only because of the center itself, which had been a deteriorating, blighted center, but we’re hoping for the improvements to be contagious along Westminster Boulevard,” Anderson said.