Illegal Dump Site Should Be Easy Target : City’s existing laws, not intervention by an assemblyman, ought to force timely cleanup

Why has it taken more than four years to: successfully evict an illegal squatter, demolish a trashed home, and just begin to remove a mountain of old tires so deep that junked cars were found underneath it?

The question can rightly be asked of the blighted lot at 12653 Osborne St. in Pacoima. It can be referred to more properly, perhaps, as one of the most disgusting illegal dumps in the San Fernando Valley.

The good news is that a cleanup is under way. That’s thanks to the work of Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar), in supporting a $150,000 set-aside of state funds for the Osborne Street site. Already, more than 32,000 used rubber tires have been removed.

But this piece of property used to have a home, and a yard. At no time was it ever officially classified as a dump site. Why did it ever get so bad?

James Bass and his wife, Connie Aguirre, bought the home in 1973 as an investment property. After Bass’s death, his brother moved into the house while it was in probate, and allowed auto-repair companies to dump used tires there, illegally.

Aguirre tried for four years to evict him, with a court order. Police were called in to cart him off at least three times. By the time the brother was finally arrested, in January, for allegedly stealing electricity and alleged drug possession, and by the time the property was finally declared a fire hazard, the damage had been done.

There were tires piled 15 feet high, several drums of used motor oil, hypodermic needles, discarded underwear, a 40-foot trailer filled with mattresses, and all manner of urban detritus. The tires weren’t just a fire hazard. They also served as a breeding ground for mosquitoes, vermin and illegal activity.

Surely the city can use existing laws to act more quickly in these matters. It shouldn’t depend on the good graces of a state assemblyman years down the line.