Fillmore City Council Refuses to Halt the Demolition of Hotel : Housing: Owner of low-income residence vows to try to overturn condemnation order as he did after 1987 earthquake.

The Fillmore City Council on Monday refused to halt the planned demolition of the Fillmore Hotel, which provided lodging for farm workers and their families before being damaged in the Jan. 17 earthquake.

Fillmore Hotel owner Eric Marsh was the only building owner to appeal the city’s plans to raze 14 condemned structures that suffered structural damage during the Northridge quake.

“I’m contesting this based on the fact that this building is repairable,” Marsh said.

Despite his objection, the City Council unanimously approved the recommendation from Fillmore’s Building and Safety Department to tear down the two-story structure.

“If you are looking for an excuse to close me down, fine,” Marsh told the council. But, he warned, “You are mistaken if you think this will stop here.”

Marsh said in an interview that he believes he can prevail, as he did several years ago when he successfully overturned a city condemnation order after the residential hotel was damaged in the 1987 Whittier earthquake.

City officials estimate that 80 people who lived in the hotel were made homeless last month when the outer walls on the second floor of the building collapsed in the earthquake.

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Marsh was concerned that if he demolished the hotel and rebuilt, the city would reduce the number of rooms allowed on the site. Marsh said this would undermine his ability to provide low-priced rentals for the city’s numerous low-income renters.

The Fillmore hotel is divided into 17 units that housed about 80 people. Under the new city code, any new building on the site would only be allowed to contain three residential units.

“I don’t see why the city would want to undermine this (repair) plan,” Marsh said. “The hotel is one of the only successful businesses in town. We can afford to repair the building, so why not let us?”

Stephen Stuart, director of Fillmore’s building inspection team since the earthquake, told the council that the building suffered significant structural damage and could not be repaired safely.

Stuart detailed the damage to the building in a report submitted to the council Monday night. He said all four walls suffered damage, including severe cracks to the north and south walls, which could fall at any time. He said the structure is considered so unstable that the urban search and rescue team refused to enter the building to retrieve tenants’ belongings.

City officials said they were amazed that no one was killed or seriously injured when the walls on the hotel’s second floor fell away from the building during the quake, smashing into the sidewalk and crushing cars parked along the street.

“Just looking at it scares me,” said Mayor Linda Brewster.

Marsh argued that the structure held up reasonably well.

“The building did just what it was supposed to do. The walls fell out and the building did not collapse,” he said.

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When the city condemned his building in 1987, Marsh sued the city. He argued that city officials had always wanted to get rid of the hotel because it housed many poor Latino migrant workers. To settle Marsh’s lawsuit in 1988, the city overturned its condemnation order and Marsh agreed to spend close to $100,000 for safety improvements.

Marsh is threatening to sue the city again. He said his engineer detailed a plan to repair the damaged structure.

“If this is how they want it--fine,” he said. “We came out fine on the last lawsuit. I made money on that one, if fact. Look, this goes to my most basic property rights. It took me 20 years to be able to buy that property and I’ve invested more than seven years into it since then. I’m not going to give it up.”