Los Angeles County Funding Agency Gives La Mirada Neighborhood Favorable Marks

December 20, 2023

Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding provides housing rehabilitation grants and loans, conducts code enforcement, resurfaces neighborhood streets, expands drainage capacity to reduce street flooding, replaces damaged curbs, gutters, and sidewalks, plant street trees, and enhances street lighting.

CDBG funds and former Redevelopment Agency funds were used to improve La Mirada’s Foster Park neighborhood over the past twenty years.

The Los Angeles County Development Authority (LACDA) conducts a study every ten years to determine if conditions exist, such as deteriorated buildings or abandoned properties, that negatively impact the neighborhood overall and, therefore, qualify for CDBG funding.

LACDA recently reviewed conditions in the Foster Park neighborhood and recognized the city’s efforts to modernize the infrastructure and enhance the properties in the neighborhood. As a result of these advancements, the community, located west of Valley View Ave., no longer requires CDBG funding.
Linda Jenkins, Director of LACDA’s Community Development Division, wrote in a letter to the city, “Although this outcome does not allow the city to qualify for CDBG activities…it demonstrates the city’s efforts over the last 20 years have made a difference in addressing blighting conditions in the Foster Park Neighborhood.”

Many homeowners in the neighborhood received various grants and loans to improve plumbing and electrical systems, replace roofs, windows, and doors, fix damaged garage doors, complete landscaping enhancements, and provide new exterior paint. Much of this work was funded by a city-sponsored curbside appeal rebate program. As with other areas of Southern California, property values have increased significantly in the neighborhood, with many homes more than doubling in value since the Great Recession.

Public improvements were also a critical factor in LACDA’s favorable review. “The Foster Park neighborhood was the first neighborhood in La Mirada to receive comprehensive infrastructure enhancements,” said Public Works Director Mark Stowell. The work there preceded other infrastructure projects in La Mirada neighborhoods funded by Measure I, a five-year sales tax measure approved by voters in 2012 that has since expired. In addition to the neighborhood street improvements, the city replaced the playground and added Community Gardens at Frontier Park and completed landscaping renovations on the Valley View Ave. median.

Foster Park neighborhood continues to receive service from the city. The recently adopted Housing for All initiative continues prioritizing homes in the area for the city’s housing rehabilitation program. Neighborhood streets were most recently slurry sealed in 2019, and work on rehabilitating Valley View Ave. is set to begin next fiscal year.