HUNTINGTON BEACH : Police Dept. Will Move Oak View Substation

A Police Department substation serving the Oak View community will move early next year to a storefront in a nearby shopping center to better serve residents, officials said.

The substation, which has been next to the Oak View Community Center on Oak Lane for five years, will relocate to a 1,250-square-foot storefront on the northwest corner of Beach Boulevard and Slater Avenue.

Police Lt. Luis Ochoa said the existing substation is too small to meet officers’ and residents’ needs.

The new substation will be centrally located and more accessible to residents, businesses and the surrounding community, Ochoa said.

Federal grant money, totaling $30,000, will pay for the remodeling of the storefront, which is big enough to hold neighborhood meetings.

The Oak View substation, one of four in the city, was opened because of the neighborhood’s drug and gang problems. Ochoa credits the station with helping reduce crime.

The four police officers assigned to the Oak View area will work out of the new substation along with the officer assigned as the community liaison officer for the north area command.

The Police Department’s three other substations are downtown, at the Huntington Beach Mall and Huntington Harbour Mall.

Ochoa said the existing Oak View substation will remain open and will be used by officers who handle problems at local schools.